A CARE assistant who punched a Muslim woman and ripped off her hijab in a racist attack has been jailed for 20 months.

Ellie Burns attacked two female shoppers on April 29 after they complained a song she was singing was racist.

3 Ellie Burns was today jailed for 20 months for the racial attack Credit: SWNS:South West News Service

3 Burns punched a Muslim woman and ripped off her hijab Credit: Facebook

Burns spat at the first victim and pulled her hair, as well as punching her and pulling off her hijab in the attack at Bradford's Kirkgate Market, West Yorks.

The second woman was slapped and pushed over, prosecutor Giles Bridge told Bradford Crown Court today.

'DEEPLY DISTRESSED'

He said both women were left deeply distressed.

Burns then assaulted a police officer called to the scene by scratching and nipping him, the court heard.

Burns, 21, from Bradford, committed the offences 25 days after receiving a suspended prison sentence for vodka and cocaine-fuelled attacks on a taxi driver and five police officers.

RACIAL ATTACK

Burns pleaded guilty to two offences of racially aggravated common assault and for assaulting a police officer.

On April 4, she had been sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, for a racially aggravated assault on a taxi driver, racially aggravated harassment, theft and assaulting five police officers, in April and January last year.

The court heard Burns had hurled racist abuse at the taxi driver and punched him in the face, causing bruising and a cut to his eye.

When the police arrived, she struggled during arrest causing a cut to an officer's finger. Back at the station, the officer was kicked and spat at, and Burns threatened to bite his nose.

3 The attacks happened at Kirkgate Market in Bradford in April

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Her barrister, Camille Morland, conceded she was not suffering from a mental illness but said that she had suffered serious emotional trauma.

She said: "When sober and calm, she is insightful and thoughtful, when she is intoxicated, it is another story."

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, activated ten months of the suspended sentence and jailed Burns for a total of ten months for the new offences, the sentences to run consecutively.

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