A 21-YEAR-OLD got so drunk he could not remember racially abusing and hitting a shopkeeper, a court heard.

Clifford James Moody threatened to set fire to Manjit Singh, the Sikh owner of a newsagent in Spennymoor, County Durham, during a fracas on June 11, this year.

Yesterday, Judge Michael Wood gave Moody a 13-week suspended jail sentence.

It means that if he commits another crime within a year, he will go to prison.

Moody, of Heather Grove, Spennymoor, admitted racially aggravated assault at an earlier hearing and was given credit for his early guilty plea yesterday at South Durham Magistrates' Court, sitting in Newton Aycliffe.

Richard Cowen, prosecuting, told the court how Moody had gone into Mr Singh's shop and delivered "a mouthful of racial abuse" and threatened to burn his shop down.

Mr Cowen said the abuse continued outside the shop and Moody hit Mr Singh in the jaw in an unprovoked attack.

Lawrence Petterson, for Moody, said: "Mr Moody says he has no racist feelings. He can't understand his actions, it followed binge drinking but if he was sober he would never have got involved in that situation."

Moody, who told the court he could not remember anything about the attack, was ordered to pay £100 compensation to Mr Singh.