Man found guilty of launching hate attacks on two men and a 14-year-old boy

The 30-year-old previously pleaded guilty to two counts of assault by beating and one count of grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent.

Antisemitism campaigners have hailed the verdict as a victory, after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reinstated charges of religiously aggravated assault despite initially claiming they did not have enough evidence to do so.

This followed a meeting organised by the Community Security Trust (CST) between one victim and senior CPS officials.

After travelling to London to visit his family, Mr Qureshi embarked upon a string of assaults against Jews.

At 6.40pm on August 18 the Yorkshireman hit a teacher in the head with a bottle while playing Arabic music from his phone. 

Giving evidence in court, the victim said: “I felt shocked. When I came home, I was quite traumatised and it traumatised my kids that their father was slapped like that in the road.”

Asked about the motivation for the attack, he said: “He wanted to attack me [as] I’m another religion – that I’m Jewish. 

“It shouldn’t be happening another time to our community, to our religion, and it should be everything peaceful as I thought as a young child that London is a peaceful and safe place and as I said, it’s not really.”

At 7.45pm, Mr Qureshi slapped a 14-year-old boy as he walked to his Orthodox Jewish school.

In a statement read out in court, the victim - now 16 - said: “The man said nothing to me and just slapped me and walked away.

“That’s not good for me or anyone who is Jewish or anyone else. That must not happen to anyone.”

45 minutes later, Mr Qureshi punched a 64-year-old man with such force that he hit his head on a wall and fell to the ground unconscious. 

The victim, who was en route to a synagogue, suffered bruising to his face, broken glasses, a sprained ankle and multiple broken bones in his foot.

Giving evidence, he said he was “traumatised” by the attack.

“I used to be walking the street tall and strong and confident and now I’m just a cowardly wreck. Any noise, I jump,” he added.

“I imagine he didn’t like me, I will be honest with you, sir, because I’m Jewish.”

Prosecutor Varinder Hayes told Mr Qureshi: “You don’t like Jewish people.”

“When you attacked those people they were in vulnerable positions, by themselves. They were standing, facing you in Jewish clothing while they were on their own,” she added.

Mr Qureshi insisted he was not antisemitic, and had attacked his victims at random after getting “wound up” by an argument in a shop.

“It was nothing to do with what clothing people were wearing. I was just angry,” he told the court.

He said he would like to apologise to the two men he hit, and claimed, “I didn’t mean any harm”.

CST Director of Policy Dave Rich said: “This was a shocking series of assaults on ordinary Jewish people that brought home the horrific impact of anti-Jewish violence.

"Today’s verdict vindicates the determination shown by the victims, with the support of CST and others, that Qureshi’s attacks should be fully prosecuted as religious hate crimes.

"We are grateful to the CPS for changing their view on this, and we thank the CST volunteers who worked with the victims to ensure they received justice.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said: “We are very satisfied that Abdullah Qureshi has been found guilty of the racially aggravated elements of his assaults. 

“This verdict begins to redress the serious harm caused to his victims and we expect the court to impose a sentence appropriate to the severity of his awful crimes. 

“Today’s verdict also vindicates efforts made by Campaign Against Antisemitism, Shomrim and others to pressure the Crown Prosecution Service into reinstating the aggravated charges after they were initially dropped. 

“The CPS claimed that it did not have sufficient evidence to make out the antisemitic element of the crimes, but we disagreed and the court has now in effect found that we were right to do so.

“We are grateful to the CPS for making the case forcefully in court today and bringing about this outcome. The CPS must now recognise that victims of antisemitic crimes cannot be made to accept deficient legal outcomes.”

Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Yasmin Lalani said: “We will not tolerate hate crime of any form in London. 

“The Met has a zero-tolerance policy for hate crime. We want to build safe and strong communities where people say no to hate crime.”