A SCHIZOPHRENIC has been jailed after he launched a racist tirade at a train station.

Peter Townsend was sentenced to four months in prison after he flew into a rage and tried to punch a black worker at Southend Central station in Essex.

The 27-year-old, of Boundary Road, Walthamstow, had been stopped in the ticket hall by station officer Segun Olaretan after he tried to jump the barriers without paying.

But Townsend took offence to being stopped and called the officer a “black monkey” before swearing at him and swinging a punch which missed.

He also tried to spit at Mr Olaretan during the incident which happened in front of passengers on Thursday, July 2.

He was arrested and later pleaded guilty to a charge of using racially aggravated threatening words and behaviour.

Ian Elkins, prosecuting, said: “The officers reported the defendant was clearly drunk and a number of passers-by saw his behaviour at the time.”

Andrew Trimble, defending, said: “Mr Townsend suffers from paranoid delusions and a split personality.”

Townsend was sentenced at Southend Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday and told he would still have to complete a previous community order which had been imposed on him.

Deputy District Judge Kevin Gray jailed him for 16 weeks and said the sentence would have been a whole month shorter if it was not for the racial element.