A knife-wielding maniac who screamed "You ****ing black monkey" as he slashed his victim's throat did NOT deserve to be punished for racism, a judge said.

Judge Anthony Thorpe said Brett Charlton's outburst was a drunken remark and gave no grounds for taking a harder line when jailing him.

The judge had earlier told lawyers in private he thought the world had gone "PC mad".

Judge Thorpe's decision to ignore the jibe was overturned yesterday at the Court of Appeal in London by a panel of judges who went on to more than treble Charlton's jail term.

Charlton, 27, of Thorn Road, Worthing, had originally been imprisoned for ten months for slashing the throat of Alahassan Kamara, known as Alaska, a 16-year-old asylum-seeker from Sierra Leone.

Lord Justice Latham yesterday ruled the sentence was unduly lenient.

He went on: "The racial aggravation was dubbed by the judge as merely a drunken remark. At least, that would appear to be the way he took it. In fact it was a clear statement of racial bias.

"It was offensive in the context of there being other black friends of the victim present."

He ruled Charlton should serve three years for the offence of causing grievous bodily harm aggravated by racism.

The decision was a hollow victory for Alaska and his supporters - Charlton is already serving a three-year prison sentence for a separate offence of burglary imposed in February.

Dressed in a white shirt, he smiled and blew a kiss to his girlfriend in the public gallery after hearing the new sentence would not be added to that term but would run alongside it.

Alaska came to Sussex from his war-torn homeland in 2001. He needed 18 stitches after Charlton lashed at him with a penknife at Worthing station in July last year.

Police tracked down Charlton after an appeal in The Argus. He pleaded guilty on the day his trial was due to begin.

The five months he had served on remand was automatically doubled and knocked off the ten-month sentence, meaning he walked free from the courtroom with only a drug treatment order.

Alaska's friends were sickened and the Crown Prosecution Service immediately lodged the appeal.

Addressing the panel yesterday, Mr Richard Horwell described how Judge Thorpe told barristers Charlton's remarks were not enough of a factor to result in a longer prison sentence.

He added: "In his chambers the judge said, 'You know my views on racially aggravated matters. I think the world's gone PC mad. If you are asking whether it (Charlton's slurs) makes a difference to sentence, the answer is no'."

Mr Horwell said Judge Thorpe should have abided by anti-racist principles set out by the law.

Mr Horwell said: "Those who indulge in racially aggravated violence must expect to be punished severely to discourage the repetition of that behaviour."

Sarah Munro QC, acting for Charlton, said her client was not a racist and had an Indian step-father.

She said: "The incident was motivated by drink rather than race. There was no planning and he was not targeting anyone. The hostility was brief in the extreme."

But Lord Justice Latham, summing up, disagreed. He said the drug treatment order was not a suitable punishment for a violent crime.

He said: "The judge became blinkered by the original drug treatment order in July 2003. We can only commend his hopes in that regard at the time, but the attack had overtaken the position.

"The judge needed to pause, which he did not, in order to ensure if a drug treatment order was remotely appropriate."

Although pleased with the ruling, police were yesterday disappointed it would not lead to any increase in Charlton's penalty.

Detective Constable Mark Chambers, who led the investigation into Alaska's attack with Detective Constable Darren Stenning, said: "At least we can go back to the victim and say Charlton is now serving three years for this assault so he can try to get back to some sort of normal life."

After the hearing Mr Horwell said: "We won every single fight but lost the battle because it will make no difference to his sentence.

"But the point of principle was worth establishing."

Andy Strudwick, Alaska's guardian, said Judge Thorpe should pay for his mistake.

Mr Strudwick said: "If I made a mistake in my job I would expect repercussions. This judge made a huge mistake and there are none."

"It does not give you any faith in British justice."