A LANDLORD who sparked outrage when he said he would not serve gays was last night counting the cost of a paint attack on his pub.

Vandals daubed white gloss paint over the front door of Ronald Ware's public house, The Balaclava, in West Cornforth, County Durham.

On Monday, The Northern Echo reported how Mr Ware had placed a sign behind his bar which read: "No homos or perverts that I know of will be served in here".

He claims the paint attack is directly linked to his views, which were meant to be a "joke". "Whoever did this did it because of the fuss about the sign in the pub.

"It has now gone and was never meant to be taken seriously. No one was ever banned from coming in here.

"It has been blown out of proportion and I just want the fuss to die down and get back to normal without incidents like this happening."

Sergeant Kevin Blakey, of Spennymoor police, said the paint had been thrown over the door probably between 3.30am and 8.30am on Wednesday.

He said: "Most of it has now been cleaned off, but it is still unacceptable for this to happen. We would be interested in speaking to anybody who has information."