A CHURCH Hill couple have been found guilty of racially abusing their neighbours.

Steven and Sharon Hayes, of Edgeworth Close, were each fined £100 by Redditch magistrates after a hearing on Friday.

Mr Hayes, 32, also admitted threatening to fight his neighbour, Michael Kandekore, claiming his wife had been insulted through the garden fence.

He said: "The way I've been brought up you don't speak to a woman like that and if you do you might as well expect a slap really.

"I asked him to step outside, which is a perfectly gentlemanly thing to do as far as I can see."

Chairman of the bench Don Harris, in judging a case which took nearly 18 months to come to court, said: "This has been a very costly, long affair between near neighbours and the court will hope there will be no repeat of this behaviour."

Mr Hayes admitted racially abusing Mr Kandekore but said it was in response to abuse from his neighbour after a row erupted because he turned up his stereo to drown out reggae music being played next door.

Mr Kandekore denied taunting Mrs Hayes by singing "hey fatty bum bum" through the garden fence and denied racially abusing Mrs Hayes' half-Indian son.

Mrs Hayes also told the court she wanted to fight Michael and said: "I offered Michael outside and if he had gone out the gate, I probably would have hit him."

John Sampson, defending, told the court the Kandekore family were using the legal system to further their long-standing quarrel with the Hayes family.