JAIL sentences totalling three-and-a-half years have been handed out to two racist thugs who launched a sickening attack on a Sikh supermarket manager.

Steven Kent, aged 25, and Stuart Cameron, aged 19, carried out the attack at Sainsbury's store in Harpenden after turning up drunk two hours before the store was due to open on Sunday, May 28, last year.

The two, who had each drunk 15 pints of lager, tried to force their way in for more alcohol and Cameron, of Glemsford Drive, Harpenden, attacked the manager Gurminder Singh thinking he was a Muslim.

When Mr Singh, known as Bobby, told them he was a Sikh they rained a flurry of blows on him, leaving him with a fractured cheekbone.

His colleague David Wilson tried to pull the yobs away but was himself punched several times in the face by Kent and a third man Mark Hattam.

Kent, of Lowestoft, was sentenced to two years in jail after being found guilty of racially-aggravated grievous bodily harm as well as a charge of affray for attacking Mr Wilson when he rushed to help Mr Singh.

Cameron, a carpentry student, received 18 months detention after admitting the race attack.

Hattam, aged 19, a trainee bricklayer of Ranleigh Walk, Harpenden, who defecated in a nearby lift and whose face was described as "contorted with rage" during the onslaught, was found guilty of affray. He was given six months in a young offenders' institution. [Link]