Gazza pleads guilty to making racist joke about security guard at An Evening With Gazza show

Former England football star Paul Gascoigne pleaded guilty to a public order offence relating to a racist joke about a security guard at a live show.

Appearing at Dudley Magistrates' Court, Gascoigne, 49, admitted to a racially aggravated public order offence, involving "threatening or abusive words or behaviour", on 30 November at his show An Evening With Gazza in Wolverhampton.

He has been fined £1,000, and been ordered to pay £1,000 to the victim and £500 costs.

The court was told how Gascoigne humiliated security guard Errol Rowe during the show by asking him: "Can you smile please, because I can't see you?"

District Judge Graham Wilkinson said the incident was an example of "insidious" racism which needed to be challenged.

The judge told Gascoigne: "Mr Rowe was clearly humiliated on stage, as part of an act. As a society it is important that we challenge racially aggravated behaviour in all its forms.

"It is the creeping 'low-level' racism that society still needs to challenge. A message needs to be sent that in the 21st century society that we live in, such action, such words will not be tolerated. It is not acceptable to laugh words like this off as some form of joke."

Regarded by many as the most gifted English footballer of his generation, Gascoigne played for clubs including Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, and Glasgow Rangers during his heyday the 1990s. Since retiring from football, Gascoigne has fought a public battle with alcoholism, relapsing several times after undergoing treatment in rehab centres.