For seven years, a Jewish police officer in Chicago was berated by his superior with such epithets as "f…..g Jew boy" and "bloodsucking parasite", while enduring mock-Nazi salutes and the waving of swastika flags.

Last week, a federal grand jury evened the score, ordering former police Sgt. Lawrence C Knasiak to pay $540,000 (£320k) to his erstwhile target, Detlef Sommerfield.

Justice was long in coming to Mr Sommerfield, a German-born Jew, whose aunt was killed in a Nazi concentration camp, according to reports in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune.

Mr Sommerfield worked under Knasiak from 2000 to 2007 and filed a complaint with police authorities as early as 2004. It took three years to collect evidence for the allegations, after which Knasiak retired from the force.

However, in 2012, the case went to a jury, which found the City of Chicago at fault and awarded Mr Sommerfield $30,000 in damages. During that trial, Knasiak denied making the insulting remarks and said he was "shocked" when he first heard of the accusations.

In the current case, the federal jury applied the $540,000 penalty to Knasiak personally.