A SOLDIER who stepped in to rescue a woman from her violent boyfriend was racially abused and bitten in the face.

Tristan Koks tried to protect Breanne Ridout when he saw her being punched by her partner, Shaun Gibbons, after a night out.

But Liverpool Crown Court heard that, as Mr Koks tried to intervene, the 21-year-old took his anger out on him.

Witnesses described Gibbons repeatedly shouting: “You f****** n*****,” at Mr Koks, who was on leave from serving with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in Afghanistan.

The soldier and his friends managed to push drunken Gibbons outside the Crosby fast food restaurant, but still hurling abuse he threw a punch at Mr Koks and the pair wrestled.

As Mr Koks walked away, he was floored by a blow to the back of the head which knocked him unconscious.

When he came round, Gibbons was biting his back, punching him and shouting.

Joanne Maxwell, prosecuting, told the court Gibbons then bit Mr Koks’s face above the eye, leaving a clear teeth mark. Min- utes before the racist attack, Gibbons had attacked another man who had tried to intervene.

Nicholas Gaskell had also tried to protect Ms Ridout, but Gibbons had screamed: “You f****** queer,” before repeatedly punching him to the face.

Gibbons, of John Hunter Way, Bootle, was arrested for the trio of attacks on May 8 and released on bail.

But he was picked up by police less than a month later for being drunk and disorderly, just hours after he had grabbed cash from a pub till.

He was jailed for a total of three years yesterday after he admitted racially-aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm, two counts of common assault, robbery and being drunk and disorderly.