A MAN was spared prison after attacking two care workers in separate attacks.

Phillip Belcher, 22, was found guilty at Southampton Crown Court of racially-aggravated assault against a worker at a home at Stoney Cross in the New Forest where he was resident at the time.

Belcher was convicted after initially denying the assault in January, in which he was accused of elbowing a man in the chest and hurling racist abuse at him.

The court also heard how Belcher, who was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, had attacked another care worker while he was in a residential centre in Newport, Wales. Prosecutor Eleanor Fargin described how in March he shouted abuse at a woman and pushed her over, causing a small fracture to her pelvis and bruising to her knees.

He admitted causing actual bodily harm. In sparing Belcher, who now lives in Wales, a jail term, judge Peter Henry warned him he was on his last chance. He was given a 12-month community order.