A 37-year-old man has been charged in connection with a series of attacks on synagogues, a private residence and a Jewish school in north-west London, the Metropolitan Police said.
Ionut-Cristian Bold, of no fixed address, was charged with six counts of racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage and one count of racially or religiously aggravated harassment without violence. He also faces three counts of destroying or damaging property and one count of having an article with intent to destroy or damage property. Bold was arrested in the Hendon area and remanded to appear at Willesden Magistrates’ Court on Monday, Sept. 15.
Detectives linked seven incidents that took place between Aug. 15 and Sept. 11 in the borough of Barnet, including the Golders Green area, where a private residence and four synagogues had a "substance smeared on them," the force said. In two other incidents police said a liquid was thrown towards a Jewish school and over a car. Officers described some of the scenes as "revolting and appalling," and said the substance and liquids were believed to have been bodily fluids.
Police were first called to a report of religiously motivated criminal damage relating to a synagogue on Sept. 3, the force said. Further reports were received in the early hours of Sept. 4 at a private property and on Sept. 7 at a different synagogue. A liquid was reported thrown at a school on Sept. 8, and similar smearing incidents were reported on Sept. 2 and overnight on Sept. 11. Officers said inquiries linked the Aug. 15 incident in which liquid was thrown over a car to the other attacks.
Superintendent Zubin Writer, who leads local policing in Barnet, Brent and Harrow, said investigators "will always treat allegations of this nature extremely seriously and these charges follow an investigation by a team of local officers." He said police continued to offer support to local residents, including members of the Jewish community.
Charities that monitor antisemitism said the attacks had caused distress in the area. A spokesperson for the Community Security Trust described the "extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green" as "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."
Officers increased patrols in Barnet, which contains several large Jewish communities, while enquiries continued, the Metropolitan Police said. The Crown Prosecution Service will review the charges ahead of the defendant’s first court appearance. No further details about motive have been released, and detectives asked anyone with information to contact police as the investigation continues.