Ten recent cases that raise troubling questions about the Crown Prosecution Service

This does not in any way detract from the fact that anyone accused is innocent until a court finds otherwise.

Here are ten recent cases that raise troubling questions about the CPS.

1. May 2021, antisemitic car convoy in north London –
CPS drops charges

A convoy of cars draped in Palestinian flags drove along Finchley Road through Golders Green and Hendon, with passengers shouting “f*** the Jews” and “rape their daughters” through loudspeakers and honking their horns.

In the days that followed, the Metropolitan Police arrested four men in connection with the incident, which was captured in widely circulated footage. The then prime minister, Boris Johnson, condemned the “shameful racism” aimed at British Jews, which had “no place” in society. But in November and July 2022, the CPS dropped charges against four men who had been accused of travelling to north London to take part in the convoy.

Abuse was shouted from cars in 'hate convoy' in north London in May 2021[Missing Credit]

The CPS said the incident, though “shocking”, was unlikely to result in convictions, citing difficulties in proving the suspects were in the vehicles at the time or identifying who had participated “to the criminal standard”. Jewish communal bodies slammed the decision, with a Community Security Trust spokesperson saying it was “outrageous that nobody is going to be held to account for what happened”, which it described as “an appalling and blatant incident in broad daylight, captured on film in real time”.

It expressed hope that “everyone involved in this investigation and aborted prosecution will review their actions to learn the lessons of this failure”. The Campaign Against Antisemitism said the case showed the CPS had reached “the absolute pinnacle of pointlessness”.

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2. Aug 2021, Orthodox Jews assaulted. CPS initially drops racially aggravated charges

A man travelled from Dewsbury to Stamford Hill where he attacked three visibly Jewish passers-by.

He hit a teacher on the head with a bottle, attacked a 14-year-old boy on his way to school and punched a 64-year-old man on his way to a synagogue over a two-hour period on August 18, 2021.

2. Attack on an Orthodox Jewish 64-year-old resident of Stamford Hill in August 2021 (Shomrim)[Missing Credit]

Jacob Lipschitz was walking to the synagogue at about 8.30pm when he was punched with “such force” that it left him unconscious, with broken glasses, facial bruising, a sprained ankle and four fractures in his foot.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan condemned the “appalling attack”. But in April 2022, the CPS dropped the racially or religiously aggravated elements of the charges, reinstating them only after significant communal outrage. The defendant was ultimately found guilty and given a hospital order.

​3. October 2023, police say “intifada” chant at protests not an offence on CPS advice

​In October 2023, as anti-Israel protests swelled on the streets of London, at one rally the word “jihad” was repeatedly invoked. The then Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the behaviour amounted to “inciting terrorist violence”.

At the time, the Metropolitan Police said the word “jihad” has “a number of meanings”. After consulting the CPS, the force said it did not believe any criminal offence had been committed in relation to the use of the term at the rally.

But Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, suggested that cases could have been brought against those using the term, citing Section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006, which covers encouragement to terrorism applied to any statement made at a protest or march.

He said: “Jihad has benign meanings but, in this context, would likely refer to violence.”

“Jihad” and other contentious terms including “intifada” continued to be used with impunity at marches over the following two years.

Police in London and Manchester decided to penalise the phrase “globalise the intifada” at protests in the city last December, following the terror attacks at a Manchester shul and on Bondi Beach in Sydney.

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4. Oct 2024, alleged offences at protest outside JW3 –
no CPS charges

While attendees were filing into the Jewish community centre on a Sunday morning for a pro-peace conference organised by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, as well as other communal events, protesters gathered outside shouting chants of “intifada” and slogans supportive of the Houthis.

One protester shouted “Shame on your crocodile tears, shame shame shame shame,” at a distressed woman as she sought help from a nearby police officer.

Protest outside JW3 centre in north London in October 2024 (X)[Missing Credit]

Despite several alleged offences being escalated to the Crown Prosecution Service, no arrests were made until criminal barrister Jeremy Dein KC wrote to the Met in December 2024 outlining “substantial and extensive grounds” for police intervention.

Following Dein’s intervention on behalf of a Jewish client, several arrests were made – but no charges have been pressed against any of the protesters.

Victims told the JC that the outcome “calls into question whether the CPS is taking the experiences of Jewish people – particularly as victims of hate crime – seriously”.

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5. Nov 2024, Shabbat protest sees call for Zionists to be “put down”, no charges

A woman was filmed at a protest near the Israeli ambassador’s residence at the start of Shabbat, stating: “These people are terminally deranged and the sickness is Zionism and it is incurable so they just need to be put down.”

The Met Police said the language in the video was “unacceptable” and the force was conducting “a thorough investigation”.

But it was concluded that the charging threshold for offensive was not met. A subsequent right to review was submitted by a victim who had been present at the protest, but the CPS rejected the request in October 2025 – by which time, the six-month statutory time limit for non-aggravated public order offences had expired.

Anti-Israel protest in Swiss Cottage, north London on a Friday evening, November 2024 (X)[Missing Credit]

The authority assessed the statement about “putting down” Zionists could be interpreted as an expression of “political ideology”.

“And therefore there is not a realistic prospect the suspect would be convicted of a racially or religiously aggravated version of a public order offence.”

The District Crown Prosecutor also suggested the time (Shabbat) and location in a largely Jewish area did not impact whether this had been an “unreasonable place to conduct a protest”.

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6. Nov 2024, Kneecap member ‘filmed with Hezbollah flag’  – CPS misses deadline

Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – Mo Chara of the Irish rap trio Kneecap – was charged with a terror offence after he allegedly raised a Hezbollah flag during a concert in north London.

The case was thrown out of Woolwich Crown Court in September 2025 after it transpired that permission was not given to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to consent to the prosecution until May 22, a day after Chara was charged and one day after the six-month statutory time limit on such cases.

This was despite the Met’s counter-terrorism command being made aware of the online video from November event on April 22.

Protests at court hearing for Kneecap singer Liam O'Hanna, August 2025 (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

The chief magistrate said the proceedings “were not instituted in the correct form, lacking the necessary DPP and AG (Attorney General) consent within the six-month statutory time limit” and the court had “no jurisdiction to try the charge”.

Communal groups responded with frustration to the case collapsing. A spokesperson for the Jewish Leadership Council said at the time: “We have a right to expect that serious offences involving proscribed terrorist organisations are prosecuted properly. When they are not, it risks leaving these offences unaddressed and undermines confidence in the rule of law.”

The CPS is said to be appealing the ruling.

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7. Nov 2023, Hate call to rabbi, CPS initially fails to classify it as aggravated

Rabbi Yehuda Pink and his wife received an antisemitic phone call redirected from their Solihull synagogue answerphone. The caller, who was traceable, stated: “Jews are all baby killers” and “I know where you live”.

Police located the suspect and arrested him – but the CPS was slow to classify the incident, eventually informing Rabbi Pink that it had been confirmed as “malicious communications”.

Racially or religiously aggravated charges were only added once the case reached court, and Rabbi Pink was never informed.

The suspect pleaded guilty to the charges against him and was sentenced to a rehabilitation activity and fined £60, as well as a £200 compensation fee in August 2024.

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8. March 2024, antisemitic rant at shul, CPS delays charging decision for a year

A man attempting to enter a synagogue in Birmingham was stopped by security, at which point he launched an antisemitic verbal tirade. The incident was captured on CCTV, and West Midlands Police identified and located the suspect.

It took the CPS a year to inform the victim that the incident had been classified as racially aggravated.

In March 2025, the suspect was finally charged with a racially aggravated public order offence. At Birmingham magistrates’ court last August, the suspect filed a guilty plea and was fined £492.

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9. April 2025, Academic allegedly makes antisemitic posts on X. No charges

A man was reported to the police after an X account under his name repeatedly posted an emoji of an inverted red triangle – a symbol associated with Hamas – underneath posts from Jewish social media accounts.

Other posts by the account included one with an image of men in Hamas uniforms and the caption “these are my new spokesmen”. Another showed an image appearing to be the man next to a gun and the caption “I’m joining the war on the US and UK on the side of the Houthis”.

He was reported to the police and investigated. However, Greater Manchester Police told the victim that a CPS lawyer had chosen not to take the matter further, owing in part to the fact the symbol of the red triangle was not widely understood, which could give the defendant the “benefit of doubt,” according to an email outlining the prosecutor’s decision.

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10. June 2025, Bob Vylan’s “death to the IDF” chant at Glastonbury. No charges

Footage of Bob Vylan’s performance at Glastonbury Festival, where he led the crowd in a chant of “death, death to the IDF”, drew widespread criticism, including from Prime Minister Keir Starmer who called the chant “appalling”. The BBC also faced backlash for not halting a livestream of the performance.

The incident was assessed by Avon and Somerset Police, which interviewed a man in his mid-thirties and contacted about 200 members of the public.

Singer Bobby Vylan of Bob Vylan at Glastonbury, June 2025. (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

After the force referred it to the CPS, in December 2025, the police said that prosecutors had advised the criminal threshold for pressing charges was not met. “We have concluded, after reviewing all the evidence, that it does not meet the criminal threshold outlined by the CPS for any person to be prosecuted,” the force said. “No further action will be taken on the basis there is insufficient evidential for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction.”

In response, the CST said: “It is incredibly disappointing that the police and CPS have decided not to charge in this case, particularly when police forces in London and Manchester are adopting a stronger approach to tackling hateful rhetoric.”

Responding to the JC report, Lionel Idan, Hate Crime lead for the CPS said in a statement: “There is no place in society for attacks on people because of their race or faith, and we recognise the profound impact this offending has on victims and the wider community.

“Our most recent data shows that we are working on the highest ever number of hate crime cases referred to us by police. Confronting antisemitic hate crime is a core part of that effort and our charge and conviction rates show that when these cases come to us, they result in real consequences for perpetrators.

“The law in this area can be complex and although it may appear at face value that a law has been broken, some offences are often context specific. Where the evidence does not initially meet the legal threshold for charging, we work closely with police to identify what further steps can be taken.

“We acknowledge that we do not get everything right the first time, but we are determined to continue to work every day to improve outcomes.

“As well as regular engagement with Jewish community leaders, we have also responded to the Government's hate crime review to identify where the law can be strengthened to enhance our ability to prosecute such hatred, deter offenders and achieve justice for victims.”

Join the JC for an exclusive discussion on law, policing and Jews in the UK. With former attorney general Sir Michael Ellis; Labour MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism Joani Reid; and Jewish Leadership Council head of legal David Toube. Moderated by JC political correspondent Lorin Bell-Cross. For details, click here