Prosecutions for Antisemitism
2017 Prosecutions
11th October 2017 - Timothy Rustige, 68
Timothy Rustige, 68, of Altrincham, pleaded guilty to eight counts of criminal damage at Central Manchester Magistrates’ Court following a graffiti campaign between September 2016 and August 2017 that saw him scrawl slogans on the River Bollin Aqueduct in Dunham Massey. The graffiti included anti-Israel slogans such as “BDS” and “Gaza bleeds”, but also antisemitic slogans such as “ZioNazis”, accompanied by a Star of David.
Rustige was sentenced by magistrates to a 12-month community order with 140 hours of unpaid work, and he was ordered to pay £500 in compensation.
29th September 2017 - Glenn Okafor, 32
Glenn Okafor, 32, of West Norwood, was convicted of two counts of religiously-aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress at Stratford Magistrates’ Court. At approximately 9:00 on 4th March 2017, as Jewish families walked to synagogue for Saturday morning prayers, he shouted: “F*** you Jewish people…you lot should go back to your own country” and “We will sort you out. I have friends. I’ll be back tomorrow. We will wipe you out.” In an apparent reference to a conspiracy theory that white Jews are in fact imposters and that the supposed real Jews are black, he also shouted: “We are the real Jews”.
Okafor was sentenced at Thames Magistrates’ Court to a 12-month community order with 200 hours of unpaid work, and he was ordered to pay £150 to his victims and costs of £620 to the Crown Prosecution Service.
11th September 2017 - Allister ‘Ally’ Coutts
Allister ‘Ally’ Coutts was convicted of causing racially-aggravated intentional alarm and distress at Aberdeen Sheriff Court for intimidating a Jewish businessman and telling security guards that ISIS is controlled by Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.
Coutts was ordered to pay a fine of £175.
11th September 2017 - José Manuel Silva
José Manuel Silva was convicted of racially and religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm, distress and criminal damage, including shouting “burn” at Jewish passersby, including children, in Golders Green in London.
Silva was sentenced to 28 days in prison and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a fine of £165.
7th September 2017 - Richard Reed
Richard Reed was convicted of religiously-aggravated harassment at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court for shouting “I’m going to kill you f***ing Jews, I know where you are” and making gun gestures at a recognisably Jewish man who had entered a pub in Suffolk with friends on 5th August 2017. The landlady called the police, who arrested Reed at the scene.
Reed was fined £300 and ordered to pay court costs of £85, a victim surcharge of £30 and compensation of £100.
5th September 2017 - Ineta Winiarski, 33
Ineta Winiarski, 33, was convicted of three counts of racially-aggravated assault at Thames Magistrates’ Court. On 3rd July 2017, she approached Jewish wedding guests who her husband was already attacking and whipped Ben Herbst with a dog’s leash and shouted “F***ing Jew”. Ben Herbst’s father, Israel Herbst rushed to protect his son from the attack and was hit by Winiarski in the shoulder. She shouted antisemitic abuse throughout the incident, including shouting “Kurwa” (a Polish expletive) and reportedly telling the Jewish wedding guests in broken English: “Dog stay here England, you Jews go away.”
Winiarski was sentenced to 12-weeks in prison, suspended for a year, as well as being ordered to participate in a rehabilitation programme lasting no longer than 20 days. She was also ordered to pay £40 to each of her three victims, as well as £230 in victim surcharges, and £85 in costs to the Crown Prosecution Service.
5th September 2017 - Kasimiersz Winiarski, 62
Kasimiersz Winiarski, 62, was convicted of two counts of common assault at Thames Magistrates’ Court for attacking guests at a Jewish wedding along with his wife on 3rd July 2017.
Winiarski was sentenced to 12-weeks in prison, suspended for a year, as well as being ordered to participate in a rehabilitation programme lasting no longer than 20 days. He was also ordered to pay £40 to each of his two victims, as well as £115 in victim surcharges, and £85 in costs to the Crown Prosecution Service.
11th August 2017 - James Evans, 70
James Evans, 70, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated harassment without violence at Worcester Crown Court for sending and hand delivering over 150 racist and offensive letters to his Member of Parliament between June 2016 and January 2017, often multiple times per day. In the letters he claimed that “Zionist Jews” are members of a “death cult” and they will “get us all killed in the Third World War”. It was his third such offence.
Evans was fined £250.
8th August 2017 - Paul Pawlowski, 90
Paul Pawlowski, 90, of Burgess Hill, was convicted of racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress at Brighton Magistrates’ Court for displaying a placard including the words: “Pull the chain, flush the Jew mafia down the drain” on the Old Steine, Brighton on 28th May 2017. He told the police officers who arrested him that if they took his antisemitic placard and leaflets, he would walk through the streets shouting his views.
Pawlowski was fined £150 and ordered to pay costs of £100 and a victim surcharge of £85.
24th July 2017 - ‘Christopher’ Charles Panayi
Christopher’ Charles Panayi was convicted of racially aggravated criminal damage over a road rage incident in January 2017 during which he stopped his car multiple times, exposed and parted his buttocks, called a Jewish man a “F***ing Jewish prick”, punched the Jewish man’s car window and smashed his wing mirror.
Panayi was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community service work, and to pay £1,000 in compensation and £620 in prosecution costs at Hendon Magistrates’ Court. He was also handed a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for a year.
3rd May 2017 - Mark Harding, 48
Mark Harding, 48, of Walsall was convicted of sending offensive communications at Hendon Magistrates’ Court for telling a fan of a rival football team to “stick your head in the oven like the Jew you are” on Twitter in November 2016, and expressing hope that the fan would “die in a freak car accident”.
Harding was ordered to pay £150 compensation and perform 60 hours of community service. He was also given an 18-month suspended prison sentence.
26th April 2017 - Michael Demetriou
Michael Demetriou was convicted of racially aggravated harassment, alarm and distress for shouting “Heil Hitler” and “F***ing Jews” at Jewish victims in London in August 2016.
Demetriou was ordered to pay £640 in costs, and discharged on condition that he commits no further offences for six months.
10th March 2017 - Lawrence Burns
Lawrence Burns was found guilty of two charges of publishing threatening, abusive or insulting written material with intent or likely intent to stir up racial hatred by a jury at Cambridge Crown Court, over his efforts to spread “vile and offensive sentiments”. He spoke in a YouTube video memorialising American white supremacist leader David Lane, accusing Jews of being “parasites” that wanted to create a “mongrelised race”.
Burns was sentenced to four years in prison by a judge at Peterborough Crown Court. On appeal, his sentence was reduced to two-and-a-half-years.
2nd March 2017 - Abdul Ahaed, 29
Abdul Ahaed, 29, was arrested on 26th November 2016 after calling a hostel worker a “Black n*****”. He became very abusive to police and while at the police station, shouted “Jewish c***” on two separate occasions at a police officer. Ahaed pleaded guilty at Wood Green Crown Court to two counts of racially aggravated intentional harassment alarm and distress.
Ahaed was sentenced on 24th February 2017 to a 12-month community order, a 6-week curfew between 23:00 and 6:00, a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement, a victim surcharge of £85 and payments of £100 each to the hostel worker and the police officer.
2nd March 2017 - Jaroslaw Goloshko
Jaroslaw Goloshko shouted “Heil Hitler” and performed a Nazi salute directed at Jewish passersby in Stamford Hill on Christmas Day 2016. He was spotted by volunteers from Shomrim Stamford Hill whilst out on patrol. They followed him and called the police who came and arrested him. Goloshko was convicted of a racially aggravated public order offence.
Goloshko failed to attend court for sentencing on 2nd March 2017 and a warrant for his arrest was issued.
26th February 2017 - Sean Creighton, 45
Sean Creighton, 45, of Enfield, was found to be in possession of the White Resistance Manual 2.4, which police described as the kind of document likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. One of Crieghton’s social media posts said “You will never catch me shedding a tear for a n****r, Jew, commie or queer.” One image he posted showed “a number of trees, from each of which is hung one or more Jewish people with the word ‘Jew’ placed upon them by way of a sign.”
Creighton was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for seven offences of incitement to racial hatred, and five years’ imprisonment for a terrorism offence, to run concurrently. He was also made subject to a notification order for 15 years.
22nd February 2017 - Kristian Omilian, 30
Kristian Omilian, 30, stuck antisemitic stickers on a synagogue in Auckland Road, Cambridge, in November 2016. On 9th February, he pleaded guilty to a racially and religiously aggravated public order offence.
Omillian has been sentenced to a 12-month community order. He was handed a restraining order which prevents him from stepping within 100 yards of the synagogues in Thompsons Lane and Auckland Road and he must participate in up to 15 days of rehabilitation activity and undertake 120 hours of unpaid work.
20th February 2017 - Clive Wilson, 46
Clive Wilson, 46, admitted shouting: “Shame Hitler didn’t finish the job, Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler, Allahu Akbar” at volunteers from Stamford Hill Shomrim who suspected him of involvement in burglaries. He had earlier denied the charge.
Wilson was fined £160 and made to pay a £30 victim surcharge and £85 in court costs.
14th February 2017 - A 17-year-old neo-Nazi from Bradford
A 17-year-old neo-Nazi from Bradford and member of the proscribed terrorist organisation, National Action, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made a homemade pipe bomb in order to start an “all-out race war”. The boy, who praised the killer of Jo Cox MP, was arrested by the North East Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) in July 2016 after a member of the public alerted police to a series of Snapchat photos, including threats to British Jews and an image of the pipe bomb.
The boy was handed a three-year Youth Rehabilitation Order and ordered to receive intensive counselling from a deradicalisation expert.
12th February 2017 - John Nimmo
John Nimmo sent antisemitic messages to various Jewish people. One message to Luciana Berger MP, who is Jewish, said: “You are going to get it like Jo Cox did. So you better watch out Jewish scum” and included a photograph of a large kitchen knife.
Nimmo was sentenced to two years and three months in prison. He pleaded guilty to nine charges relating to grossly offensive, threatening and false communications. His sentence was increased on account of his convictions for previous similar offences and the racist nature of his messages.
2nd February 2017 - Patrick Joseph Delany, 19
Patrick Joseph Delany, 19, of Coggeshall, pelted Jewish shoppers, including a 13-year-old child, with 20 to 30 gas canisters and shouted “Hitler is coming, Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler” on 6th January 2016. He pleaded guilty to a charge of causing religiously-aggravated harassment, alarm or distress at Wood Green Crown Court.
Delaney was sentenced to six months in prison.
26th January 2017 - Damian Filipek
Damian Filipek pleaded guilty to 18 counts of criminal damage and 2 counts of racially-aggravated criminal damage at Maidstone Crown Court following a drunken night out on 17th November 2016, during which, he and his friend, Sebastian Tancula, painted slogans on shops, homes, and a public toilet in Tunbridge Wells. The graffiti consisted of football slogans such as “Wisla Sharks” accompanied by “Amti Jude” meaning “anti-Jewish” and a star of David. In Poland the fans of Wisla Sharks are infamous for violence and antisemitism.
Filipek was sentenced to 22 weeks in prison.
26th January 2017 - Sebastian Tancula
Sebastian Tancula pleaded guilty to 18 counts of criminal damage and 2 counts of racially-aggravated criminal damage at Maidstone Crown Court following a drunken night out on 17th November 2016, during which, he and his friend, Damian Filipek, painted slogans on shops, homes, and a public toilet in Tunbridge Wells. The graffiti consisted of football slogans such as “Wisla Sharks” accompanied by “Amti Jude” meaning “anti-Jewish” and a star of David. In Poland the fans of Wisla Sharks are infamous for violence and antisemitism.
Tancula was sentenced to 22 weeks in prison.
18th January 2017 - Daren Thomas
Daren Thomas, of Westcliffe-on-Sea, sent a series of antisemitic death threats to a Jewish man, also threatening his wife and children, between July and August 2016. One message said: “Have you seen inglorious barstard’ [victim’s name]? The swastika on the forehead is a nice touch! Nazi jew boy!” His messages made multiple mentions of the victim’s family, including: “I’m going to find your home retard. I know your married, and God, I hope you have kids!! I want them to see you on your f***ing knees!” Thomas was convicted of religiously-aggravated harassment.
Thomas was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months conditional on his undertaking a behavioural training course. A restraining order was also put in place directing that he should not attempt to make contact with the victim and he was also ordered to pay a £300 victim surcharge.