A HUSBAND and wife from Worcester trying to save their marriage got drunk and racially abused a group of people nearby, a court heard.

Timothy and Sally Corbett were sitting on a bench drinking alcohol outside Asda in Lowesmoor, Worcester, at 4.30pm on Sunday, August 25, when they began speaking to a group nearby.

Sarah Stock, prosecuting, said the pair concluded that the group were Muslim, and commented that they should not be in the country and should read the Quran.

Ms Stock read out a statement from the victims which said: “We were sat talking when the woman (Sally) started getting involved. She said we should not wear red lipstick because of the country we are from.

“She was sat with a man (Timothy) who was trying to hold her back. The man then said we should not be in the country. He also said ‘in the Quran it says to respect your elders’ and ‘how can you not relate to the Quran?’”

When interviewed, Sally Corbett, aged 48, of Diglis Dock Road, said she could not remember what she had said due to being drunk, while her husband denied that he had been drunk. Defending himself and his wife, Timothy Corbett said he had met his wife from work with a view to reconciling after a separation.

He said: “We were talking for a couple of hours and I went into Asda to purchase some supplies to take home with me and came out to find Sally was in a heated discussion. She said the group in question were ridiculing people as they walked past.

“I told her to sit down, it was nothing to do with us, but because of the alcohol she got up to go over to them, not to hit them, but to get closer to them, to not shout.”

He then said the group were only about 18-years-old and should have been respectful of their elders and read the Bible or the Quran, although he said he did not mean offence by it and he said it because the books offered teachings.

Both pleaded guilty, at Worcester Magistrates Court, to racially or religiously aggravated harassment, causing alarm or distress by words. Timothy Corbett, aged 55, of Edgehill Court, Battenhall, was fined £110 and ordered to pay £50 in court costs and a £20 victim surcharge, while his wife was fined £150 and also ordered to pay £50 in court costs and a £20 victim surcharge.