AN Ellesmere Port man racially abused a Polish security guard working at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Steven Smith, 28, of Princes Road, pleaded guilty on Friday, February 22 to the offence, which happened in the hospital on December 2 last year.

Prosecuting, Rob Youds said Smith told the security guard to "go back to his own country" and made fun of his accent.

The court heard Smith was under a lot of anxiety at the time as he had been prevented from seeing his daughter, who was receiving urgent medical attention in a hospital ward.

Smith was handed a 12-month community order by magistrates and ordered to pay £100 compensation to the security guard.

Mr Youds told the court it was about 1pm when Mr Pochopien had been called to the resuscitation room, where there were a lot of family members who had arrived with a child who was seriously ill.

They were arguing among themselves and the security guard said Smith could not come in to that room.

After 25 minutes, the child was transferred to another ward and the child's mother was allowed in but Smith was denied admittance.

Smith said: "Are you f***ing kidding me?" and walked away.

The security guard then saw Smith walking along the corridor in the direction of the ward and told him "Sorry, you are not allowed on the ward."

Smith began swearing at him, before adding: "F*** off and go back to your own country."

The security guard, in a statement, said he was originally from Poland and did not feel comfortable with being subjected to that kind of language, particularly in a building with women and children present.

He added: "He began making fun of my accent and I don't think I did anything to deserve this."

The matter was reported to the police and, when interviewed, Smith said he could not remember making the comments, adding if he did, they were out of character for him. He added he was not a racist.

He had four previous convictions for four offences, including a public order offence in 2017.

He was on an existing community order for a domestic violence conviction, but he had no previous convictions for racially aggravated offences, the court heard.

Defending, Richard Simm said the day before the offence, Smith's daughter had fallen very ill. Smith had to carry out emergency resuscitation and the child had to be rushed to hospital by ambulance.

His daughter was taken to another ward and by this point there had been a disagreement between Smith and his mother over what had happened and why there had been no contact earlier, which led to security staff being called over.

At first Smith thought he was refused admission to the children's ward because of protocol, but his grievance was why he had not been given any explanation.

He could not understand why he, as the child's father, he could not go through, and accepted he lost his temper with the security staff.

Mr Simm added: "He concedes he became upset and became abusive towards the member of staff and made the comment.

"It's unpleasant and aggravated by taking place in a hospital and that he is on a current community order, but taken into account with the child being rushed to hospital and anxiety of wanting to see if the child is ok.

"I accept that racial abuse is wholly unpleasant but you will hear far worse before the courts."

The court also heard Smith was making positive progress on his existing community order, while a letter of reference from a former employee of Smith said the incident was "not his normal way".

A probation report said that, in addition to Smith making positive progress on the existing community order, he had taken steps to reduce his alcohol intake.

Chair of magistrates Keith Siddorn, sentencing Smith, said: "No-one who works in the public services deserves to be taken advantage of like this."

Smith's 12-month community order includes 120 hours unpaid work.

In addition to the community order and compensation, Smith must pay £85 court costs and an £85 victim surcharge.