Protester who wore sign labelling Leeds chaplain “war criminal” and “pervert” convicted and fined
A protester was convicted and fined yesterday after wearing a sign labelling the Jewish Chaplain at the University of Leeds a “war criminal” and a “pervert”.
Serena Fenton, 56, was found guilty in Leeds Magistrates’ Court of two counts of racially aggravated offences under Section 5 of the Public Order Act.
The charges related to a sign, which she displayed on her person, at two anti-Israel demonstrations in Leeds on 13th April and 1st May earlier this year.
The sign displayed an image of the University’s Jewish Chaplain, Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch, who was targeted with death threats during his tenure at the University after it was claimed that he had served as a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza. Text imposed on the image read: “Thousands of war criminals will soon be walking our streets: Rapists, child-killers, perverts, torturers, thieves, psychopaths! They are dangerous! Do not approach unless armed! They will face justice!”
During proceedings, a community witness described the words on Ms Fenton’s sign as “extremely distressing” and said that it was “clearly designed to cause distress”.
The court found that the word “they” in the sign referred to Jews, notwithstanding Ms Fenton’s claim that she was referring to the IDF. She also said that the wording “unless armed” referred to being armed with “knowledge”; the court, however, concluded that the wording constituted a call to vigilante violence that would cause alarm or distress.
During her oral testimony, Ms Fenton said that she “only disliked Zionist Jews”, which the court concluded was an antisemitic view. It was also determined that her actions demonstrated racist intent.
According to our representative polling, only 6% of British Jews do not consider themselves to be Zionist.
A police officer also testified that Ms Fenton was uncooperative during her arrest, which took place during the demonstration in May.
Ms Fenton was fined £100 per offence, plus a £160 victim surcharge cost and £600 in prosecution fees.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of just under nine hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews more than twelve times likelier to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group.