A man has been charged after a series of “revolting” antisemitic attacks on synagogues in London.
Ionut-Cristian Bold, 37, allegedly smeared a substance on a number of premises in the Golders Green area in Barnet between 4 and 11 September.
Seven Jewish premises have been targeted in separate incidents in recent weeks, the Metropolitan Police said on Thursday. Four synagogues and a private residence were smeared with a substance, while a liquid was thrown towards a school and over a car.
CST (Community Security Trust), the Jewish body that advises communities on security, reported that faeces and urine were used in some of the attacks.
The police force described the incidents as “appalling”. Detective Superintendent Katie Harber from the North West Command, who is leading the investigation, said: “These are revolting and appalling acts.”
Bold, of no fixed address, has been charged with six counts of racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage, and one count of racially or religiously aggravated harassment without violence, the Metropolitan Police said on Saturday.
He has also been charged with three counts of destruction or damage to property, and one count of having an article with the intent to destroy or damage property.
He is due to appear at Willesden Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Officers were first called to a report of religiously-motivated criminal damage relating to a synagogue on the morning of Wednesday 3 September, with further reports that similar offences had taken place in the early hours of Thursday 4 September at a private property, and Sunday 7 September at another synagogue.
Police received reports that a liquid was thrown at a school at around 2am on Monday 8 September and that a substance had been smeared on two further synagogues on Tuesday 2 September and overnight on Thursday 11 September.
As a result of inquiries, officers were able to link a seventh incident that took place on Friday 15 August and involved a liquid being thrown over a car linked to a fifth synagogue.
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.”
Levels of antisemitism across Britain soared in the wake of the 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. The country suffered its second-worst year for antisemitism in 2024, with more than 3,500 incidents recorded, CST said in February.
Following the incidents, a spokesperson for CST 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.”
