A PROFESSIONAL photographer who was racially abused and beaten saw his attacker jailed today - after telling a judge: “I wouldn’t like to see him locked up.”

Company boss Dimitris Legakis was in the region from South Wales to cover the Middlesbrough v Swansea football match at The Riverside Stadium in December.

On the night before the match - known as Black Friday because of past violence as workers break for Christmas - he was capturing images in the town centre.

After seeing a drunken reveller shove a young couple and smash a window in their car, Mr Legakis took a photograph of him to pass on to police as evidence.

But Daniel Skelton reacted furiously, calling him a “smelly foreigner”, beating him to the ground and snarling: “I’m going to kill you, you’re in my country.”

The 29-year-old was locked up for two years and four months for what a judge at Teesside Crown Court described as “a sustained and vicious attack”.

Judge Peter Armstrong said: “This was a most unpleasant attack and the effect on him has been considerable. Gratuitous insults are repulsive to the public.”

The court heard how the photographer suffered a broken right arm and left wrist, cuts and grazes to his face, and could not work for two months.

He said in an impact statement that he still has problems carrying his heavy equipment and doing simple tasks, and suffers from flashbacks and sleepless nights.

He said: “Although I have never met him personally to make any judgement, his actions were appalling.

“It was my first time in Middlesbrough and all the people I met were extremely friendly, and I consider my experience isolated.

“The people of Middlesbrough should be so proud of themselves. If it was not for the police’ immediate response, Mr Skelton could have got away with it.

“I’m not vengeful and don’t want him to go to prison, but his actions were despicable.”

In a letter to the victim, Skelton said: “I would like to try to say sorry for my disgusting behaviour and totally uncalled for actions.

“If I could take it back I would. I hate myself for my actions that night. I just hope you can see I’m not that sort of person.”

John Nixon, mitigating, said the labourer had split up with his partner in Scotland, and returned to Teesside to be close to his family, and got some bad news on the night of the attack.

He said Skelton’s ex had called him to say he would not be seeing his children again, and added: “The circumstances impacted critically and he could not cope.”

Skelton, of Redcar Road, Redcar, admitted racially-aggravated grievous bodily harm, two charges of racially-aggravated damage and one of damaging property.

The court heard that as well as breaking the car window, he smashed two of Mr Legakis’s cameras - one worth £3,500 - and his mobile phone.