British girl gets jail for attacking elderly Sikh man

The British teenaged girl who attacked an 80-year-old Sikh pensioner in a city centre in Britain's Coventry last year has been jailed for two years by the Warwick crown court.

Coral Millerchip, 20, attacked frail pensioner Joginder Singh at the city centre in August last year, an act which was captured on camera and caused an outrage among the Sikh community in the country, the Coventry Telegraph reported Friday.

Millerchip punched Joginder Singh to the ground with his Sikh turban falling off in the brutal assault.

The judge Friday ruled that the girl had "humiliated" Singh and sentenced her to a two-year jail term and 20 more months for an unconnected burglary.

Singh suffered a scratched nose in the attack and was later discharged after being taken to the hospital.

A resident of Coventry in Britain's West Midlands, he was a dementia patient and died three months after the attack from an unrelated health complaint.

Millerchip pleaded guilty to a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, the report said.

Describing it to be "a serious type of offence", the judge said: "This man was very vulnerable due to his age and due to a medical condition."

"He was an elderly gentleman - you could have just walked away from him. Instead of that you assaulted him and humiliated him," the judge said.

The judge said that Singh was no threat to her and nothing could justify such an attack.

The girl's counsel, David Murray contended that Millerchip had "a very troubled childhood", the report said.

"Within both documents seen by the court you see a very fragile, vulnerable young person," Murray said.

Murray said Millerchip had shown real remorse since the attack.

Meanwhile, Singh's family in a statement said Singh was never the same after the brutal assault and he was "edgy" and "nervous" in his own home.

Millerchip was also jailed for 20 months for a burglary committed in July last year with brother Mason Millerchip and Jordan Arrol in a Coventry house where they stole a laptop and bank cards.