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A pensioner has admitted sending a racist letter to Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott in which he described black people as "vermin."

Barkingside Magistrates Court heard Roy Brown, 69, sent the note to the shadow home secretary's Westminster office on August 2 last year.

The letter, which was opened by one of Ms Abbott's parliamentary assistants, included a string of racist abuse and repeatedly referred to "black vermin".

It also including a threat to burn Ms Abbott's house with her "trapped inside" and said that she would be "butchered like the cowardly vermin butchered Pc Blakelock".

Keith Blakelock was a Metropolitan Police officer murdered in 1985 during a riot at a housing estate in Tottenham, north London.

He added that she was "fat enough" to be used as a shield.

(Image: Getty)

Brown was sentenced to a 12-month community order at Barkingside Magistrates' Court in Ilford on Wednesday.

The judge also ordered him to complete a 10 day rehabilitation order and to pay £85 in costs.

District Judge Gary Lucie said: "I do accept that you have shown full remorse, I do think you are sorry and that it won't happen again.

"The offence is aggravated by the mention of race in the letter, I accept that you are not racist but the wording in the letter does deal with characteristics of black people."

Brown, of Ilford, Essex, previously pleaded guilty to sending an indecent or offensive letter.

His defence counsel Farhana Rahman-Cook said he has "vulnerabilities", that the offence was a "one-off" and that he had become "teary" at a previous court hearing.

Ms Abbott alone received almost half of all the abusive tweets sent to female MPs in the run-up to the general election last year.