A THUG hurled racist abuse at two men in a supermarket car park and threatened one of them with a hammer and a knife.

Allen Dinnadge, of Lodge Lane, Grays, was jailed for 14 months for the attack, which a judge described as “utterly appalling”.

During his outburst, the 27-year-old, took off his shirt and yelled at one victim: “You are not the right colour to speak to me”, adding: “My granddad fought in the war. What did yours do?”

In court, Dinnadge apologised, but was unable to explain his behaviour in the car park of Morrisons, in London Road, Grays.

Prosecutor Chris Saad told the court Dinnadge abused the first victim, a black man, as he walked through the car park at about 8.30pm on August 2 .

Dinnadge then went to a car, got out a hammer and a craft knife and pushed the victim with the hammer. He then swiped at him with the knife.

Another black man, standing at a nearby bus stop saw the attack and took out his mobile phone to call the police, the court heard.

Dinnadge spotted him, grabbed his phone and pushed him to the ground, shouting racist insults, before driving off.

Mr Saad read out a statement from the first victim, in which he said the attack had left him anxious and worried about similar attacks in future.

At an earlier hearing, Dinnadge admitted racially-aggravated assault on the first man and racially-aggravated common assault on the second.

Jailing him, Judge David Owen-Jones, said: “This was an appalling, unprovoked, racist assault on two men undergoing their normal business in a public place.

“This sort of behaviour and this kind of racist assault will not be tolerated in a civilised, multi-cultural society.

“It is so serious only an immediate custodial sentence is suitable.”