A MOTHER and son suspected of using a racist slur for their home wi-fi network – a signal that popped up in homes down the street – were targeted by indigenous neighbours, who wreaked havoc on their house in drunken retaliation.

The signal read “Abos are bludgers who can’t look after their kids”.

Darwin Magistrates Court heard bad blood existed between the pair and their neighbours, Damien Boxer and his wife, for several years leading up to the attack at the house at Moulden, in Palmerston.

Boxer admitted violent conduct, trespass and property damage.

Magistrate Greg Smith told him: “That someone chose to use this (slur) as their wi-fi signal is disgusting.

“No doubt it caused you monumental offence – you were under the influence of alcohol and lost the plot.

“But given the world we live in and the constantly offensive things people put on Facebook and Twitter, or may shout at you in the street, you need to find a way to respond that doesn’t involve violence.”

The court heard Boxer, his wife and another offender confronted the adult son, who was outside, about the wi-fi user name in November.

The woman reportedly said, “we got the message from your house about being ‘bludging Abos’”.

She told Boxer and his co-accused to “go over there and flog him”.

The man told his mother, aged in her 70s, to “go into the back room and call police”.

Boxer and his companion repeatedly threw solid plastic chairs at a glass door, which somehow smashed, then he charged at the screen door using the chair legs as prongs, and broke it off its hinges.

The chair stuck in the screen and he also overturned an outdoor dining table.

Police found the offenders in a nearby drain.

Defence lawyer Marty Aust said his client had been “racially vilified”.

“We can’t prove the victims were responsible for that wi-fi account but the signal got stronger as he moved closer to their fence,” Mr Aust said.

Boxer was jailed for a total of four months, backdated to his remand in November and suspended on an 18-month bond.