The 22-year-old Senegalese victim was abused, had her hair pulled and was kicked in the ribs, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Leroy Murby, 24, from Browning Close, Exeter, was sentenced on Friday, having been convicted at an earlier trial of causing racially aggravated actual bodily harm to Nacy Jay.

Recorder Paul Derbyshire told Murby the sentence made it clear there was no place for racism in the community.

"The message has to go out that racism has no place in Devon, or anywhere else, and will result in prison sentences," he said.

Asthma attack

"You terrified and hurt your victim when you assaulted her while shouting racial abuse at her.

"She had done nothing to provoke you - she was simply black," he said.

The court heard the attack happened on Boxing Day last year outside The Hothouse nightclub in Exeter, where Miss Jay had been with her cousin and his girlfriend.

The attack brought on an asthma attack which led to Miss Jay being taken to hospital.