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An English tourist guide in her 60s who takes visitors around Wales has been fined after launching into a foul-mouthed anti-Welsh rant.

Neatly-dressed Irene Laird, 64, appeared before a district judge after calling someone a “Welsh ****” while off-duty in the heart of Welsh-speaking Wales.

She used the C-word.

Laird told Caernarfon Magistrates’ Court she once worked as a teacher mostly in south London and insisted: “I am not a racist.”

Racially-aggravated common assault

The defendant, of Rhosgadfan, near Caernarfon, said she considered the area where she lived “the real Wales” and added: “This is why we like it.”

But district judge Gwyn Jones convicted her of racially-aggravated common assault on dog walker Gwladys Jones last December, and common assault on her, and racially-aggravated threatening behaviour and threatening behaviour on a second occasion in February.

Related: Jail for yob who attacked police with anti-Welsh rant

The incidents happened in the Caernarfon area and were unrelated to Laird’s business, which boasts of having toured with more than 2,000 visitors in a decade.

Laird received a 60-day suspended jail term for the racially-aggravated assault, a £500 fine for the racially-aggravated threatening behaviour and was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to the victim for her trauma. She must also pay £930 costs after denying the allegations.

A five-year restraining order was also imposed.

Judge Jones told Laird: “This was the targeting of a victim in a park. It was deliberate.”

The judge said in the public park there was “gratuitous degradation” of the victim and Laird used such a degree of offensive and racist language that retired nurse Mrs Jones had difficulty recounting the words before the court.

Mistaken identity

Furious Laird had wrongly believed Mrs Jones’s dog knocked her over months earlier. She was accused of pulling the victim’s hood.

During her alleged outbursts Laird said “Welsh ****”. The victim said she was terrified and her ordeal affected her health. She wanted to let matters go because of the stress, Judge Jones remarked, but there was then a second confrontation when Laird’s comments included “f****** ****”.

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Judge Jones noted that when the racial abuse was mentioned by a probation officer to Laird “there was no recognition such behaviour was inappropriate and no element of remorse”.

At Monday's hearing, he drew back from immediate custody because of Laird’s age and because she had no previous convictions.

Prosecutor Diane Williams said Mrs Jones was receiving counselling and had trouble sleeping.

Laird, who represented herself, said: “This whole episode has badly traumatised me.”