Former UKIP candidate Ian Couch has been spared jail after being found guilty of sending offensive messages to a mosque

A former UKIP candidate who sent an offensive email to a mosque after Islamic State extremists beheaded a journalist has been spared jail,

Ian Couch, 54, sent the messages in a drunken rage after becoming angry at TV reports of the beheading of US journalist James Foley.

Couch, a former counter terrorism operative, also posted racial slurs on Facebook alongside a picture of a pig's head he kept in his fridge.

The pig's head was then found in Couch's fridge after police officers visited the former marine's home in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, in August last year.

He had denied two counts of sending offensive messages and claimed he had a right to freedom of expression.

He was found guilty by magistrates and was told to expect a jail sentence.

In his sentencing hearing this week, Cambridge Magistrates' Court heard how Couch was arrested after he sent a menacing and intimidating email to the Omar Faruque mosque in Cambridge.

The email was sent after Couch, who admitted he was drunk at the time, watched a news segment on US journalist James Foley's beheading by Islamist extremists.

Defending James Dignan told the court that Couch was in fact a 'vulnerable' individual who operated under a 'facade of humour and jocularity' to hide his problems with alcohol and depression.

US journalist James Foley, pictured, was beheaded by Islamic State extremists in August last year

He said: 'When he was convicted he got out his sleeping bag and went to bed and remained there for three days, he was do devastated and traumatised.

'I don't believe that Mr Couch appreciated the seriousness of these offences at the time but he is now aware.'

He added: 'This is a man who served his country in the armed forces for some years.

'He's seen many of his friends and comrades killed or maimed and that has had a very profound affect.

'When he sees people being killed like Mr Foley it probably does affect him more than most.'

Deputy district Judge Shanta Deonarine said she accepted Couch had shown remorse and handed him a 12-week jail sentence, suspended for a year.

She said: 'I agree hatred underlined the offences. I feel this was an offence against the community as a whole.

'What you did had a wider impact, not just on the people you sent them to, and might have caused more violence and hatred.'

He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £80, £420 towards the prosecution costs, and he he must complete an alcohol treatment plan.

Couch stood as a UKIP candidate in last May's South Cambridgeshire District Council's elections.

He is no longer a member of the party after they asked him to leave upon discovering his anti-Islamic views.

Couch also posted racial slurs on Facebook alongside a picture of a pig's head he kept in his fridge