A MAN has been jailed for launching a tirade of racist abuse at a female bus passenger.

District Judge David Cooper wanted to make an example of Daniel Nixon, 37, after he and Michael Spidy’s foul-mouthed rant at a female student who boarded a Number 78 bus at the Hythe.

Sentencing Nixon to 42 days in prison, Judge Cooper said the bus passengers were “very brave” for confronting the “vile offenders”.

Yesterday, Colchester Magistrates’ Court heard Nixon, of Rosabelle Avenue, Wivenhoe, and Spidy, 20, also from Wivenhoe, were on the bus at about 7pm on December 8 when the student, from Essex University, boarded the bus at the Hythe’s Tesco store.

Tazmin Sharpe, prosecuting, told the court the pair subjected her to racist and sexual abuse from the backseat of the top deck of the bus, leaving her “shaken” and “scared”.

After asking the men to stop, the woman approached the bus driver for help. The two men then told her to “go home to her own country”.

The victim, a Cypriot national, was told to wait on the top deck of the bus while the men were dealt with.

After briefly getting off at the university, the pair got back and began barging into her, until getting off in Wivenhoe.

The court heard other passengers on the bus were shouting at the men to leave and the victim had suffered nightmares since the incident, and was frightened to use buses as a result.

Spidy was given a caution for causing harassment, alarm and distress by using threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour at an earlier hearing, but yesterday, Judge Cooper handed father-of-five, Nixon, a prison sentence.

Judge Cooper described the incident as “deeply depressing” and said he wanted to make an example of Nixon, who has ten previous convictions for a variety of offences, including criminal damage and possession of cocaine.

Judge Cooper said: “It is absolutely disgraceful people can not even get on a bus without being abused by someone like Nixon.

“People wanting to travel on public transport need to be protected. It is a disgrace the other chap only got a caution.”

Addressing Nixon in court, Judge Cooper, added: “There are families on buses and vulnerable women who need to be protected from this sort of thing.

“She now doesn’t feel able to get on the bus. ”