A HOUSING officer was subjected to horrendous racial abuse while she was doing her job.

Her abuser, a woman, is now subject to strict court orders and is banned from using abusive language in public.

If she breaches the order she runs the risk being brought back before the courts and being jailed for up to two years.

Her victim, Nadia Patel, a woman whose name has been changed to protect her identity, works for Bolton at Home.

She has decided to speak out about her experience of hate crime as part of a week-long awareness event educating people about the prejudice.

She said the abuse she suffered happened when she responded to a resident’s call about anti-social behaviour.

Ms Patel added: “I attended the area with a colleague and witnessed the perpetrator causing noise nuisance. When the perpetrator saw me she started to shout racist abuse and told me to go “back home”. I was also threatened with being thrown down the stairs if I didn’t leave.

“I am a British Muslim from Indian heritage and to be told to go home; which home? The UK is my home, I haven’t lived anywhere else.

"I felt annoyed, upset and disappointed to believe that people can speak to others in this way and I am sad to know that they live within my community. People that use this language have little or no respect for others or themselves.”

She and a colleague both provided a witness statement and the courts imposed an injunction order on the woman, banning her from using abusive language in a public place.