£20 fine for teen’s antisemitic firework assault in Hackney ‘too lenient’, says Shomrim

A community safety group has complained about the leniency of a punishment for ‘hate crime’, after a teenage boy was fined £20 for putting lit fireworks in the pockets of Jewish pedestrians.

The boy, aged 14, was arrested by the Met for racially aggravated common assault after volunteers from Shomrim - the Jewish voluntary neighbourhood watch patrol - chased and detained him in Dunsmure Road, Stoke Newington, at 8am on January 31.

The Hackney Youth Offender Panel ordered the boy to pay the fine in compensation and a sentenced him to a year’s referral order.

Moshe Monitz, supervisor at Shomrim in Stamford Hill believes his punishment is too lenient.

He said: “The outcome in this case unfortunately sends out a wrong message to victims - a sense of why bother if justice will not be served.

“The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Ministry of Justice should consider the impact that a crime has upon its victim and the message it sends to all victims in general.

“There is so much talk about a zero tolerance approach to hate crime, but it is important that it should not be mere words. It is the action that demonstrates how serious the words are.”

A spokesman from the CPS said they could not comment on individual sentences.