A 37-year-old man has been charged following a series of antisemitic attacks on synagogues and a Jewish school in the Barnet area of north London, the Metropolitan Police said.
Ionut-Cristian Bold, who is of no fixed address, was charged on Saturday with six counts of racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage and one count of racially or religiously aggravated harassment without violence. He has also been charged with three counts of destroying or damaging property and with having an article with intent to destroy or damage property. Officers arrested Bold in the Hendon area on Friday and he is due to appear at Willesden Magistrates' Court on Sept. 15.
Police said seven Jewish premises in Barnet were targeted between Aug. 15 and Sept. 11. The force said a private residence and four synagogues in Golders Green had a substance smeared on them, while a liquid was thrown towards a Jewish school and over a car linked to a synagogue in separate incidents.
Detectives were first called to a report of religiously motivated criminal damage to a synagogue on the morning of Sept. 3. Further reports were received of a similar offence in the early hours of Sept. 4 at a private property and at another synagogue on Sept. 7. Police were also told a liquid had been thrown at a school at about 2 a.m. on Sept. 8 and that substances had been smeared on two further synagogues on Sept. 2 and overnight on Sept. 11. As inquiries progressed, officers linked a seventh incident on Aug. 15 in which a liquid was thrown over a car associated with a fifth synagogue.
Superintendent Zubin Writer, who leads local policing in Barnet, Brent and Harrow, said the force treated allegations of this nature extremely seriously and that the charges followed an investigation by a team of local officers. ‘‘We continue to offer support to local residents, including members of the Jewish community,’’ he said.
Police increased their presence in Barnet while enquiries were carried out. The Community Security Trust, a charity that provides security advice to British Jews, described the defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green as ‘‘utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing.’’ The Campaign Against Antisemitism said the repeated incidents were leaving British Jews ‘‘anxious and vulnerable in their own neighbourhoods, not to mention disgusted.’’
The Metropolitan Police said the investigation remains ongoing and asked anyone with information to contact detectives. Bold will appear at Willesden Magistrates' Court on Sept. 15 to face the charges.