UK police charge 37-year old man with criminal damage to synagogues

LONDON: British police charged a 37-year old man with religiously-motivated criminal damage after a number of 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”.

Levels of antisemitism across Britain soared in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, and the country suffered its second worst year for antisemitism in 2024 with more than 3,500 incidents recorded, the Jewish body which advises communities on security said in February.

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.