A man has been charged over a spate of attacks on Orthodox Jewish people in north London.
Abdullah Qureshi, 28, will appear at Thames Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.
He is accused of carrying out five assaults in Stamford Hill on Wednesday August 18, including one which left a 64-year-old man suffering facial injuries and a broken foot.
Police said the first attack occurred at about 6.41 pm on Cazenove Road, where a 30-year-old man was hit on the head with a bottle. He suffered no injuries.
About half an hour later, a 14-year-old boy was assaulted without warning on Holmdale Terrace.
At around 8.30pm on the same evening, on Stamford Hill at the junction with Colberg Road, a 64-year-old Orthodox Jewish granddad was hit in the face.
He was left with facial injuries and a broken foot after the random attack.
Speaking after the incident, the grandfather, who wanted to remain anonymous, told ITV news that he thought he had blacked out until he watched CCTV and realised he was assaulted.
He said: ‘I went into deep shock, terrible pain for the first two nights after I heard it was attack.
‘Although I didn’t see the footage – I was advised not to – I replayed in my mind what I was told happened, as if I saw it. It was nightmarish.
‘Anxiety levels have risen, which is not very healthy. Especially with this scoundrel at large. People should know these things are not acceptable.’
Two further incidents took place in the same area on the same day, police said.
All together, Qureshi has been charged with one count of racially or religiously aggravated wounding or grievous bodily harm, four counts of racially or religiously aggravated common assault and one count of racially or religious aggravated criminal damage.
It comes after police issued an appeal for a hate crime suspect last week.
Stamford Hill has the highest concentration of hassidic Jewish people in the UK.
The alleged assaults are part of a major increase in the number of antisemitic incidents recorded in the UK this year.
A monthly record number of reports of anti-Semitic incidents were recorded following the 11-day conflict between Israel and Palestine in May.
From May 8 to June 7, 460 incidents were reported to the CST charity – the highest monthly total since records began in 1984 – with 316 happening offline and 144 online.
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