A LORRY driver called a doorman a black c**t and threatened to punch him when he was refused entry to a pub, a court heard.

Michael John William Thompson had been drinking all day and was trying to get into the Golden Cock public house on Tubwell Row in Darlington when he was refused entry.

He admitted one charge of causing racially aggravated threatening words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of, or provoke unlawful violence, when he appeared in court yesterday.

Alan Davison, prosecuting at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court, said: “The victim was working on the doors and refused entry to Mr Thompson because he was intoxicated. “He put his hand on Mr Thompson’s shoulder and Mr Thompson became aggressive, so the victim pushed him away.

“The bar manager tried to calm him down.

“Mr Thompson said ‘listen, I have had a s**t night, my wife has thrown me out and that black c**t is assaulting me’.”

Mr Davison said the 40-year-old, father-of-three, from Grassholme, Darlington, then challenged the doorman to a fight, saying he was a boxer.

“He was swinging punches at the defendant,” he said.

In mitigation, Nick Woodhouse said: “He had been drinking through the course of the day and accepts that his word against that of the bar staff would not be accepted in court.

“However he spent the day with a Sikh friend of his.

“He doesn’t regard himself as racist as one of his closest friends is of Asian extraction.

“He is shocked that he has used this kind of language. He is ashamed to find himself before the court for such an allegation.

“No-one suffered any physical harm as a result of this.

“He has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and is keen to get this dealt with as quickly as possible.”

The court heard that Thompson works as an HGV driver and had been before the court in April this year.

Chairman of the bench Stephen Butterworth said he wanted the Probation service to carry out a pre-sentence report on Thompson.

But, because the probation workers knew the victim in the case, they were obliged to transfer it to another court for different probation officers to deal with it.

The case was adjourned for one day.

Thompson will next appear at Teesside Magistrates Court, in Middlesbrough, at 2pm tomorrow.