A man has been charged by the Metropolitan Police after a series of ‘revolting’ antisemitic attacks on synagogues and a Jewish school in London.
Seven Jewish premises in Barnet, north London, were allegedly targeted while four synagogues and a private residence had a ‘substance smeared on them’ between August 15 and September 11. Liquid was also thrown towards a school and over a car.
Ionut-Cristian Bold, 37, was charged on Saturday with six counts of racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage and for racially or religiously aggravated harassment without violence.
Bold, who is of no fixed address, has also been charged with three counts of destroying or damaging property and for having an article with intent to destroy or damage property.
He was arrested in the Hendon area on Friday and will appear at Willesden Magistrates’ Court on September 15.
Superintendent Zubin Writer, who leads local policing in Barnet, Brent and Harrow, said: ‘We will always treat allegations of this nature extremely seriously and these charges follow an investigation by a team of local officers.
‘We continue to offer support to local residents, including members of the Jewish community.’
Police had an increased presence around Barnet, which has a large Jewish community, while enquiries were held into the attacks.
New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service in London
The force said that a private residence and four synagogues in Golders Green had a ‘substance smeared on them’, while a liquid was thrown towards a school and over a car in two other incidents.
Detectives were first called to a report of religiously-motivated criminal damage relating to a synagogue on the morning of September 3.
Further reports were then made that similar offences had taken place in the early hours of September 4 at a private property, and at another synagogue on September 7.
Police received reports that a liquid was thrown at a school at around 2am on September 8 and that a substance had been smeared on two further synagogues on September 2 and overnight on September 11.
As a result of inquiries, officers were able to link a seventh incident which took place on August 15 and involved a liquid being thrown over a car linked to a fifth synagogue.
A spokesperson for the Community Security Trust, a charity which looks after security for British Jews, said: ‘The extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green is utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing.
A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: ‘These repeated incidents are leaving British Jews anxious and vulnerable in their own neighbourhoods, not to mention disgusted.’
