Two teenage girls sentenced over series of antisemitic attacks in London
NEWS | 19 December 2024
Two teenage girls have been sentenced for a series of antisemitic attacks in London, including one that left a woman unconscious. The 14- and 15-year-olds, who cannot be named because of their age, targeted members of the Jewish community in Stamford Hill in four separate incidents over half an hour in December 2023, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said. The CPS said the pair appeared at Stratford magistrates court on Wednesday 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. The CPS said it successfully applied for a tougher sentence to be handed down to reflect that most of the attacks were “motivated by hate”. Prosecutors said that, in the first incident, the teenagers 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. 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. Within five minutes, they started to harass a group of four 11-year-old girls, using antisemitic language and asking them for money. The defendants followed one of the girls after they ran away, grabbing hold of her arm and taking her lunch bag from her, according to the CPS. In the final incident, which happened half an hour after the first, 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 CPS said they grabbed the victim’s phone before slapping her, pulling her wig off, throwing her to the ground and kicking her. The woman briefly lost consciousness and sustained “significant bruising”. The girls were both found guilty of attempted robbery, religiously aggravated harassment and actual bodily harm after trial, with one of the defendants also being found guilty of attempted theft. 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. “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.”
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