Two teenagers who committed a series of antisemitic attacks in London have been sentenced.
The two girls, aged 14 and 15, targeted members of the Jewish community in Stamford Hill in four separate incidents over a period of 30 minutes in December 2023.
The pair, who cannot be named due to their age, appeared at Stratford Magistrates Court earlier this week where they were handed a youth rehabilitation order for 18 months.
They were also ordered to undertake a rehabilitation activity requirement for 30 and 45 hours, and placed under curfew with an electronic tag for three months, reports The Guardian.
The pair appeared at Stratford Magistrates Court
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Prosecutors told the court that their rampage started when they demanded money from a woman on St Ann’s Road. One of them tried to hit the victim but missed, and the woman managed to escape.
Approximately ten minutes later, the pair demanded money from a 12-year-old girl near Holmdale Terrace, but let her go after they realised she had none.
Around five minutes after this, they started to harass a group of four 11-year-old girls, using antisemitic language and asking them for money.The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said defendants followed one of the girls after they ran away, grabbing hold of her arm and taking her lunch bag from her.
Lastly, the girls attacked a woman on Rostrevor Avenue. The defendants approached the victim and asked if she had money in her pocket. When the woman tried to walk away from them, she was struck in the back.The court heard how they grabbed the victim’s phone before slapping her, pulling her wig off, throwing her to the ground and kicking her.
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The pair attacked a woman on Rostrevor Avenue
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The woman in the final instance, which took place around half an hour after the first, briefly lost consciousness and sustained “significant bruising.”
Jagjeet Saund, from the CPS, said: “The evidence in this case proved that the two teenagers targeted most of the victims because they were Jewish.Key witness testimony proved that the defendants were mocking them, using antisemitic language, making it plainly obvious that these attacks were hate crimes.
“By highlighting this pattern of offending, we have successfully applied to the court to increase the sentence passed down on the defendants today.
“At the sentence hearing today, we used a community impact statement from a Jewish community leader to further demonstrate the wider impact this display of hatred can have on the local community, causing trauma and fear across society.”
Saund continued: “There is no place for such intolerance and hatred, and the Crown Prosecution Service will continue to work closely with the police to ensure those who spread hate, prejudice and hostility are prosecuted.”
It comes after reports of antisemitic incidents in the UK in the first half of this year reached another record high, according to figures from a Jewish security charity.
From January to June 2024, the Community Security Trust (CST) recorded reports of 1,978 anti-Jewish hate incidents, up from 964 in the first half of 2023.
The CST says the record high total in the first half of 2024 is a continuation of the impact of antisemitic reactions to the October 7 attack in Israel and the ongoing war in Gaza.