AN army sergeant shouted racist abuse at a lance corporal from his regiment while on a night out in Salisbury, a court was told.

Jonathan Henry, 38, admitted using racially abusive language towards his victim in June 2010. Salisbury Crown Court heard on Friday that Henry and his wife began arguing with the victim outside NN Bar at about 3am.

Henry had to be restrained by door staff and while he was being held back he started shouting racist abuse. Mark Sullivan, defending, said: “He has spent the last 22 years in the service of his country.” He added that Henry is being made redundant next year and that any prison sentence would affect his army pension. Judge Keith Cutler said: “This was quite a vicious, nasty verbal altercation.

“This is in a public place and such things can be very disturbing,” he added. “You did use a number of very bad phrases and you know how the public are very, very sensitive now to such words.”

Henry was given a 12-month community order with 50 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £500 in compensation.