A HEREFORD man who flew into a fit of range after being told he would have to move to Ross-on-Wye racially abused one housing assistant and threatened to kill another.

Ben James Earley, 21, of Breinton Road, Broomy Hill, admitted using threatening words towards Kevin Badham and racially abusing Jacqueline Burnett-Pitt.

Sarah Hurd, prosecuting at Hereford Magistrates Court, said Earley had an appointment with council housing assistant Mr Badham at their Franklin House office in Commercial Road on May 25 to talk about a house move.

"The defendant started shouting 'I'm not leaving my house' before swearing at Mr Badham and becoming more aggressive," said Mrs Hurd.

"As he moved out of the front of the office another member of staff came over to see what was going on. She was of black Caribbean origin and tried to get Earley to calm down."

The defendant used more bad language and said he was going to beat both of them up before racially abusing Mrs Burnett-Pitt.

Mrs Hurd added: "He was shouting and screaming at people. Earley then said 'I want to kill somebody right now, if I had a knife I would have killed him. I would have stabbed him in the face.'

"Mrs Burnett-Pitt said that she was scared for her own safety and that of her colleague."

Matthew Lewis, defending, said that Earley was told he would have no other option but to move to Ross-on-Wye.

"Earley felt he was banging his head against a brick wall and became angry," Mr Lewis added.

"He did use threatening language towards Mr Badham but didn't do anything to give the impression he was going to assault him.

"He was asked to leave and left but was followed outside and confronted by another member of staff. He was angry about being confronted as she didn't know him or his consequences and the words used towards her came out without thought or meaning."

Mr Lewis added that Earley was now working as a labourer with his father and had moved into private accommodation with a friend.

Chair of magistrates Lavinia Sole said: "The words you used are never acceptable under any circumstances. They should not be on the tip of your tongue."

Magistrates adjourned the case for a pre-sentence probation report to be prepared and warned that the sentence could be anything from a fine to a prison sentence.

Addressing the victims after the case, Mrs Sole added: "The view of the court is to come down very hard on this as it's not acceptable for staff to have imposed on them.

"Hopefully you can go back to doing your valuable work which you were doing before this. You were trying to do a public service and these words were not appropriate."