A MAN who launched a racially aggravated assault on an asylum seeker has been jailed for nine months.

Taha Bakhit, who is facing being thrown out of the country after claiming to be a refugee, fired off a volley of anti-Semitic abuse and threatened to behead his victim.

Once he was at the police station the 24-year-old told officers: “If I go back in there I will kill him, I will cut his head off.”

Bakhit, believed to be from Sudan, launched the attack on a resident of a shared home in Crombey Street which is used to house people awaiting deportation.

The incident took place five days after he was before the magistrates for another attack and while he was on bail for a further assault at the same house.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that police were called to the address on the afternoon of Monday, April 13.

When they got there, victim Sayed Hussain was leaning out of an upstairs window and threw them his keys saying he was frightened to come out.

After letting themselves in the officers saw the men arguing on the stairs and Mr Hussain said Bakhit had thrown a fire extinguisher at him, cutting his foot.

“He also put his hands round his throat making it difficult to breath and tried to gouge his eyes out, which was when he phoned the police,” she said.

“He then saw he was wearing a necklace and said ‘are you wearing this, are you a non-believer?’. Then he said ‘you are Jewish, you are Jewish, you will go to burn in hell fire’.

“Mr Bakhit then came out of his room, reached in to his waistband, pulled out a pair of scissors with the blades pointing towards Mr Hussain.

“He said ‘I’ll kill you now, I want to see you burn in hell. I’ll send you there now’.”

When he was taken into custody he refused to speak and spent the first two hours after his arrest banging a pillow against the inside of the cell door.

After being charged with the offence he replied: “If I go back in there I will kill him, I will cut his head off.”

Bakhit, of Crombey Street, who needed a Sudanese Arabic interpreter, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated common assault.

Janet McVeigh, defending, said her client had been in custody since he was first arrested on April 15 and there are concerns about his mental health.

Jailing him for nine months, Recorder Maria Lamb said: “This was an unpleasant and frightening incident.

“It was sustained in its nature and at the least involved a threat with scissors. What is worse is that you were on bail at the time and it occurred five days after an incident for which you were sentenced on April 8.”