16 January 2006
Two teenage girls from north London have been found guilty of robbing a Jewish girl. The victim, 13, was on the bus on the way home from school last year when she was assaulted by the two 14-year-olds, who asked if she was Jewish. When she answered "I'm English," the attackers pushed her to the floor, stomped on her face and repeatedly kicked her, then stole her bracelet. The attack left her unconscious with a fractured eye socket. The victim said that at one point during the ordeal she was left unconscious. The girl, who celebrated her Bat Mitzvah a few months ago, has now been moved to a school 90 miles away. Speaking after the verdict, she said: "I'm happy with the court that they made the right decision."
The verdict was welcomed by the girl's father and the Community Security Trust (CST), but both expressed concern that anti-Semitism had not been part of the prosecution's case. A CST spokesman said it will still be viewed as an anti-Semitic attack in their records as their was a verbal element, "We welcome this verdict and hope that the victim and her family are now able to move on from this terrible event. It is disappointing that the charges made no specific mention of the anti-Semitic aspect, but the police and CPS pursued the case on the basis of what was most likely to carry the most severe sentence." A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "It could not be charged as racially aggravated as we did not see that there was an element of racism." The judge will pass sentence on 12 February and has suggested that a custodial judgment may be necessary.
