Prosecutions for Antisemitism
2022 Prosecutions
22nd December 2022 - Stuart Sutton, 45
Stuart Sutton, 45, of Broadway, Hindley, posted antisemitic and racist material over an eight-month period in 2021. Police conducted a search of his home, arresting him shortly thereafter.
Sutton pleaded guilty to five counts of publishing or distributing written material likely to stir up racial hatred, contrary to Section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, and was sentenced at Bolton Crown Court to two years in prison, reduced to sixteen months owing to his early guilty plea.
27th November 2022 - Josh Smith, 29
Josh Smith, 29, of Inverclyde, performed a Nazi salute during a Rangers game against German team RB Leipzig on 5th May 2022 at Rangers’ Ibrox Stadium. He initially denied performing the gesture when questioned by police and instead claimed that the gesture was for the “hand and the Crown.”
Smith was found guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner which was racially aggravated for performing the Nazi gesture. He was fined £790 and was banned from attending all football matches in the UK for six months.
25th November 2022 - Paul Daniel Newman, 57
Paul Daniel Newman, 57, of Ealing, yelled “I’ll blow you up, you f***ing Jew” to a Jewish man in Stamford Hill in July 2022.
Newman was found guilty at Stratford Magistrates Court of racially or religiously aggravated disorderly behaviour as well as causing fear or provocation of violence. He was sentenced to twenty weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for eighteen months, and was ordered to comply with 30 days rehabilitation activity requirement and six months in an alcohol treatment programme. In addition, he was also ordered to pay £625 prosecution costs and £154 victim surcharge.
11th November 2022 - Malaki Thorpe, of Fairview Road N15
Malaki Thorpe, of Fairview Road N15, beat two Jewish men in Stamford Hill in North London in January 2022 in an unprovoked attack. The victims were hospitalised. Thorpe appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court charged with two counts of racially aggravated assault occasioning bodily harm and one count of possession of an offensive weapon.
Thorpe was found mentally unfit at Wood Green Crown Court, and in a court-directed plea, pleaded guilty to the charges but without the racially aggravated element. He was remanded at Chase Farm Hospital.
3rd November 2022 - Alan Strank, 42
Alan Strank, 42, performed a Nazi salute to supporters of Milton Keynes Dons, the opposing team, at Wimbledon’s Cherry Red Records Stadium on 9th April 2022.
Strank pleaded guilty at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court yesterday to a racially aggravated offence under Section 4 of the Public Order Act. He was given a three-year football banning order and was ordered to carry out 50 hours of unpaid work in the community and pay a fine of £180.
18th October 2022 - David Hutchinson, 61
David Hutchinson, 61 from Sutton, posted racist material to VK, the Russian social media platform. He made reference to neo-Nazi symbology, also writing that he was “waiting for my white race to wake up and fight back”, suggesting he is “looking for 40 men” and is “trying to organise whites”. In an apparent call to action, he added: “I love being a racist and I want to get in with people who say ‘f*** the system’ and ain’t frightened to fight for a good cause.”
Hutchinson pleaded guilty to seven offences of publishing racist material, contrary to Section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, between December 2020 and October 2021. He was sentenced to Kingston Crown Court to three years in prison.
5th August 2022 - Souraka Djabouri, 19
Souraka Djabouri, 19, of Ilford, and a fellow assailant walked in front of the car of Rabbi Rafi Goodwin, who leads the Chigwell and Hainault Synagogue in Essex, when the Rabbi was driving outside the synagogue on 16th May 2021. They forced him to brake, attacked him and stole his mobile telephone. He was brutally beaten, punched five times in the face until he fell to the floor and was then hit on the head with a brick, sustaining head injuries, according to the police. The Rabbi’s children were in the car at the time and witnessed the gruesome attack.
Djabouri admitted religiously aggravated damage to Rabbi Goodwin’s vehicle and theft of a mobile phone, and was sentenced for grievous bodily harm without intent at Chelmsford Crown Court to three years and seven months in a young offenders’ institute. The second attacker, believed to have been 25 at the time of the attack, has not been identified.
19th July 2022 - Shay Asher, 24
Shay Asher, 24, who is a fan of Newcastle United, performed a Nazi salute at Tottenham Hotspur supporters at a home match at St James’ Park in October 2021.
Asher claimed that he was merely waving to someone, but Newcastle Magistrates’ Court rejected the former Royal Engineer’s claim and initially fined him £200, with £85 costs and a £34 surcharge. He returned to court to challenge a Football Banning Order, for which the prosecution had applied, but the court decided to impose the Order, which includes an order to him to surrender his passport should he apply for one, not to enter football grounds and to keep away from England matches.
15th July 2022 - Nicholas Nelson
Nicholas Nelson, of Cambridgeshire, used an anonymous social media account to racially harass two individuals, and left racially abusive telephone messages for a charity worker. The online racial abuse included calling for another Holocaust, called the Jewish recipient “Shylock”, speaking of Jews being used for gun practice, calling Jewish women whores, sharing obscene sexual fantasies involving Hitler, and glorification of the proscribed genocidal antisemitic terror group, Hamas. Campaign Against Antisemitism, together with legal counsel, devised and applied an innovative legal initiative to unmark him and secure criminal charges against him. He pleaded guilty at Peterborough Crown Court to racially aggravated harassment under section 31(1)(b) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and with sending an electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety under 1(1)(a) of the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
Nelson was given an eighteen-month sentence, suspended for two years, at Southwark Crown Court, along with an order to undertake 30 days of rehabilitation activity and 220 hours of unpaid community service. He ws also required to pay a modest victim surcharge and was to be subject to a restraining order. However, given that his campaign of harassment endured for a period of time against multiple victims and came after he had committed several similar offences, during the suspended sentences for which he had committed these latest offences, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the Attorney General urging a referral to the Court of Appeal for the unduly lenient sentence. The Attorney General’s Office agreed, as did the Court of Appeal, quashing the sentence and recognising that the two earlier suspended sentenced that Nelson had been given had been breached and were to be reactivated and served concurrently with a new custodial sentence. In considering the new sentence, the Court of Appeal calculated that the charges should have led to a custodial sentence of 29 months if each were considered on its own and added cumulatively. However, this was reduced to 24 months after adjustment for the “totality” principle. The Court of Appeal ultimately landed on eighteen months for the final prison term.
8th July 2022 - Scott Mason, 36
Scott Mason, 36, was found with what police described as “step-by-step instructions on how to make home explosives” in the form of the infamous 1971 publication The Anarchist Cookbook. The police also said that Mason holds far-right, antisemitic, racist and homophobic views. Mason was charged with the possession of information of a kind likely to be useful to a terrorist, contrary to section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000; possession of extreme pornography; perverting the course of justice via witness intimidation; and possession of an offensive weapon.
Mason pleaded guilty to the terrorism offence in November 2021 and then, in January 2022, to the weapons offence, for which he received a sentence of three months at the magistrates’ court. The matter was then listed for trial before he pleaded guilty to the outstanding charges in April 2022. He was sentenced at Macnhester Crown Court to three years, with the judge commenting that he would have faced a four-and-a-half year sentence had he not pleaded guilty as early as he did.
23rd June 2022 - Four members of a neo-Nazi gang
Four members of a neo-Nazi gang shared antisemitic videos, memes, and images, including material celebrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazis on Telegram. Weapons and guides were recovered from Samuel Whibley, 29, Daniel Wright, 30, Liam Hall, 31, and Hall’s girlfriend Stacey Salmon, 29. Including a partially constructed 3D-printed gun at Hall’s and Salmon’s shared home in Keighley. The gang communicated with each other using a public Telegram channel set up by Whibley under the name Oaken Hearth, which White joined using the name “Gott Mit Uns”, words found on the belts of Nazi soldiers during the Second World War. The group was charged with anti-terrorism and firearms legislation, including counts relating to the encouragement of terrorism and the publication and dissemination of materials related to it.
The trial was held at Sheffield Crown Court, where Wright was found guilty of seven offences, including an offence of manufacturing a firearm, and was jailed for twelve years. Hall was found guilty of manufacturing a firearm and possessing a firearm, and was jailed for six years, while Salmon was convicted of possessing a firearm and was jailed for three years. Whibley was found guilty of eight terrorism offences, including the encouragement of terrorism and the dissemination of a terrorist publication, and was jailed for ten years.
7th June 2022 - Alex Davies, 27
Alex Davies, 27, of Swansea, was involved in the founding of a “continuity” organisation following the proscription of the neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action, designed to continue the work of the banned group and initially called the Southern Activist Network, later renamed NS131. That group was also banned as an alias of National Action nine months after the proscription of its predecessor organisation. He was a;sp photographed in 2016 performing a Nazi salute in the Buchenwald death camp execution chamber, and said that he did not believe that the Holocaust occurred.
Davies was found guilty by a jury at Winchester Crown Court of being a member of the proscribed group and was sentenced at the Old Bailey to eight and-a-half years in prison.
27th May 2022- David Musins, 36
David Musins, 36, pleaded guilty to belonging to National Action, contrary to section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He continued to be a member of the proscribed neo-Nazi terror group for three years following its ban, before leaving the group voluntarily. He engaged in fascist online activity, participated in a National Action meeting and a training camp organised by the far-right group, Legion, and attended a National Action rally in Darlington. Police discovered pictures of him alongside others performing a Nazi salute.
Musins was sentenced at the Old Bailey to three years’ imprisonment and an additional one year on licence.
24th May 2022 - Daniel Garner, 26
Daniel Garner, 26, performed Nazi salutes towards Austrian supporters during a Europa League game between West Ham United and Rapid Vienna at the London Stadium on 30th September 2021.
Garner pleaded guilty at Stratford Magistrates’ Court to one count of using threatening or abusive or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment or alarm or distress. In addition to being subjected to a three-year football ban, he was fined £166.
20th May 2022 - A thirteen-year-old boy from Darlington
A thirteen-year-old boy from Darlington was active on racist online forums, regularly used “racist, antisemitic and anti-Islamic language” and made contact with other far-right radicals online.
The boy admitted three counts of possessing information useful to a terrorist, specifically manuals for making explosives, at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. He was sentenced at Newton Aycliffe Youth Court to complete a “high-intensity” referral order for twelve months. The judge believed that a custody order could undo the “rehabilitative” progress that the child, who has learning difficulties, has made.
5th May 2022 - Andy Koseda, 54
Andy Koseda, 54, of no fixed address, was arrested on 15th February after police were called to the Westfield shopping centre in Newham, where he had been carving swastikas into a wall using a knife. When police officers tried to arrest him, he reportedly racially abused them and threatened them with the knife.
Koseda was charged with threatening a person with a knife in a public place, racially aggravated harassment, criminal damage, possession of a knife and using threatening words to cause harassment. He pleaded guilty to all counts at an earlier hearing before being sentenced on 5th May at Snaresbrook Crown Court to two and a half years in prison.
27th April 2022 - A sixteen-year-old boy
A sixteen-year-old boy who allegedly wrote on Twitter, “I am a domestic terror threat. I will bomb a synagogue,” and appeared to begin trying to realise this ambition was arrested after US authorities were alerted to his post. He searched Google for his nearest synagogue, downloaded instructions for making bombs and was pictured wearing a mask with swastikas on and making a white power salute and Nazi salute
Although the Chief Magistrate said that “I have been doing this job as a judge for twelve years and I have been involved in the criminal justice system for 23 years and this is some of the most appalling behaviour by a young person I have seen in terms of the comments you made,” he nevertheless sentenced the boy to only a twelve-month referral order.
21st April 2022 - Abu Bakr Deghayes, 53
Abu Bakr Deghayes, 53, from from Saltdean, Sussex and originally from Libya, gave a sermon in English and Arabic at Brighton Mosque and Muslim Community Centre in November 2021 to around 50 people, including teenagers and young men, urging the congregation to ignore the British Government and its Prevent programme. He is claimed to have said: “The non-believer…is an idiot; he’s stupid. Jihad is compulsory upon you, you, you and you until the Day of Resurrection, whatever the British Government thinks, whatever Prevent thinks, whatever Israel thinks.” He added that anyone who did not like what he said was an enemy of Allah. His call for “Jihad by sword” was accompanied by a stabbing gesture, and throughout he wore a black top emblazoned with the words “Free Palestine, resistance is existence”. The sermon, which prompted some in attendance to walk out, was caught on CCTV.
Deghayes was convicted at the Old Bailey of encouraging terrorism and handed a four year jail term and a further year on licence.
14th April 2022 - Alison Chabloz
Alison Chabloz uploaded a video of the scene in the classic Oliver Twist film when Fagin, a fictitious Jewish criminal, is explaining to his newest recruit how his legion of children followers pick pockets. Chabloz sings an accompanying song of her own in the video about how Jews are greedy, “grift” for “shekels” and cheat on their taxes. The video appeared to be either a bizarre fundraising effort for her mounting legal costs due to numerous charges she has faced, including several ongoing prosecutions in which Campaign Against Antisemitism has provided evidence, or an attempt at mockery of Campaign Against Antisemitism for pursuing her in the courts.
Chabloz was charged with an offence under the Communications Act and, after a two-day trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, was sentenced to 22 weeks’ custody, of which she will serve half and then be under post-sentence supervision. She was also ordered to pay £1,058 in costs.
8th April 2022 - Thomas Leech, 19
Thomas Leech, 19, promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories about the nefarious “global influence” of Jews and the “Great Replacement”, a far-right conspiracy theory which claims that Jews are responsible for mass immigration and the supposed extinction of white Europeans, as well as posting examples of Holocaust-denial. He also glorified neo-Nazi terrorists, including Norwegian mass shooter Andrers Breivik, Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, and Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof.
Leech confessed to being a Nazi when taken into custody by counter-terrorism operatives, but continued to post extreme antisemitic content even while on bail. At Manchester Crown Court, he pleaded guilty to three counts of encouraging acts of terrorism and stirring up religious or racial hatred, and was sentenced to two years in a young offenders institution.
2nd March 2022 - Matthew Henegan, 35
Matthew Henegan, 35, possessed a document containing information likely to be useful in terrorism. In a raid of his home, investigators reportedly found a Nazi armband and leaflets which referred to Hitler as “your saviour”. Henegan asserted that Jewish people masterminded the COVID-19 pandemic and created an hour-long film in which he claimed that Jewish people controlled the police, economy and media. He reportedly referred to Jews as “kikes”, adding that they were filthy and sadistic and branded them “creatures”. He appeared at a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey wearing dark glasses, a hairband and an armband with a red swastika. The judge ordered him to leave the courtroom. Asked during the trial whether he is a National Socialist, Henegan replied: “Yes, “I do not pretend otherwise.”
Henegan was found guilty at the Old Bailey of publishing, distributing or possessing material intended to stir racial hatred on six counts and one count of possessing a document useful to a terrorist after approximately eleven hours of jury deliberation. He was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court to eight years and one month in prison with an extended licence period of four years, and was made subject to a counter-terrorism notification order for 30 years.
16th February 2022 - Patrick Gomes, 70
Patrick Gomes, 70, sent three abusive and antisemitic letters to one of Alan Sugar’s business premises in Loughton between October and December 2018. Each letter was addressed to Lord Sugar and reportedly included threatening and offensive language that was also derogatory towards the Jewish faith. One of the letters read: “I would like to murder all Jews in Britain, Alan.”
Gomes was convicted of religiously-aggravated harassment, putting those targeted in fear of violence, and was sentenced to three years and six months at Chelmsford Crown Court. He was also handed an indefinite restraining order not to contact Lord Sugar.
11th February 2022 - Tahra Ahmed, 51
Tahra Ahmed, 51, a prominent Grenfell Tower volunteer aid worker, was exposed by The Times as having claimed that the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire were “burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice” and that the inferno profited Goldman Sachs. Further investigations by Campaign Against Antisemitism revealed that she was propagating a multitude of antisemitic conspiracy theories to her thousands of Facebook followers, and we reported her to the police.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court declined jurisdiction, and Ahmed was found guilty at the Old Bailey on two counts of publishing written material in order to stir up racial hatred, by eleven of the twelve jurors, and was sentenced to eleven months in prison.
20th January 2022 - Michael Campbell
Michael Campbell, of Liverpool, participated in antisemitic chants aimed at supporters of Tottenham Hotspur at a match at Goodison Park. The Everton fan was investigated and charged by Merseyside Police and Everton Football Club, and appeared at South Sefton Magistrates Court in Bootle.
Campbell was handed a three-year Football Banning Order, preventing him from attending any regulated football match, and was ordered to pay a fine and court costs.