A CHESTER man convicted of a racially aggravated assault in 2016 has been jailed for two weeks for continually failing to carry out his community service.

Thomas Edward Gawthorpe, 26, appeared shell-shocked as magistrates revoked the community order and handed him a custodial sentence.

He was originally sentenced in October 2016 for an offence that saw him tell another man: “It’s my f***ing country, it’s my f***ing city; you’re just a black c***.”

But he went on to breach the community order four times and was also fined £900 in March this year for an offence of threatening behaviour.

Chester Magistrates Court heard today (Thursday, August 2) that he completed 85 hours of the original 150-hour order.

Gawthorpe, who works as an engineer for a company in Flintshire, was brought back before the court in February for the breach when he was handed another community order, this time for 100 hours of unpaid work.

However, after completing 78 of the hours he failed to turn up on March 18 and June 17.

Scott McCrimmon, defending, argued that on both occasions Gawthorpe had been unexpectedly held up when jobs overran first in Essex and then in Scotland.

If he’d submitted the explanations to the Probation Service in a timely fashion then he would not have faced breach proceedings, the solicitor said.

But magistrates had clearly lost patience.

“We are very concerned that this is the second community order you’ve received for an offence that happened in 2016 and it’s the fourth breach that you’ve been brought back in court for,” they said.

Visibly distraught, Gawthorpe, of Crofters Way, Saughall, was led from the dock in handcuffs to serve his sentence.