UK police charge man with criminal damage to Jewish worship places

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Image showing a person wearing handcuffs. — Reuters/ File
Image showing a person wearing handcuffs. — Reuters/ File

British police charged a 37-year-old man with religiously-motivated criminal damage after several attacks on synagogues and Jewish premises in north-west London.

Seven Jewish premises have been targeted in separate incidents over the last ten days, police said, including four synagogues being smeared with a substance, while a liquid was thrown towards a school and over a car.

The substance and the liquid were bodily fluids, Sky News reported. Police called the acts “revolting and appalling”.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians in Gaza in retaliation for the kidnappings of 251 Israeli citizens by Hamas. According to a February statement from the Community Security Trust (CST) charity, which advises Britain’s estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, “more than 3,500 antisemitic incidents” were recorded in the country since Tel Aviv launched its onslaught on Gaza.

Police said they charged Ionut-Cristian Bold of no fixed address with six counts of racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage, three counts of damaging property, plus other offences, and he is due to appear at Willesden Magistrates Court on Monday, where he will enter his plea.

“We will always treat allegations of this nature extremely seriously, and these charges follow an investigation by a team of local officers,” Superintendent Zubin Writer said in a statement.

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