A drunk who called a supermarket security guard a "Jewish c---" before knocking off his kippah has been jailed for 12 months.
Shoplifter Richard Brundritt, 34, attacked James Abrahams when he tried to remove him from a Wilkinson's store in Watford.
Prosecutor Jonathan Dunne told St Albans Crown Court that Brundritt was confronted after staff saw him hide an air freshener.
He said: "He was approached by Mr Abrahams, who is in his mid-50s, and as a practising Jew was wearing a skull cap."
Brundritt shouted antisemitic abuse at the guard before "directly aiming at his skull cap and knocking it to the ground".
Unemployed Brundritt, of Butterwock, Watford, said: "I wouldn't be rude to a Jewish person because half my family are Jewish."
He said Mr Abrahams had grabbed hold of him in a rough way. "He pulled at my jumper and that's when his hat came off."
Brundritt admitted theft. He was convicted of religiously aggravated assault by beating, and of assault by beating last December.
Jailing him, Judge Stephen Warner said the attack on Mr Abrahams was aggravated by "antisemitic abuse".
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