Hunt for racist attacker after Jewish man knocked unconscious in street

From the Telegraph (whose headline is unequivocal about the attack being racist/anti-semitic) and the Dorset Echo (who have the best photograph of the attacker despite being 120 miles away from the scene, which is a shame the London papers don’t)

Jewish neighbourhood watch volunteers fear a serial attacker is prowling the streets of north London launching unprovoked anti-Semitic assaults. Sickening footage shows a 64-year-old Orthodox Jewish man being sucker-punched on the streets of Stamford Hill on Wednesday at around 8.30pm, collapsing into a wall as his attacker walks calmly on.

Neighbourhood watch group Shomrim said the victim was knocked unconscious and suffered “nasty head injuries” and a broken ankle after being blindsided by the fellow pedestrian.

His attacker, dressed in a brown jacket, white robes and what appears to be a white prayer cap, continues walking, barely breaking his stride as his victim crumples to the floor.

Shomrim said around an hour and a half beforehand, at roughly 7.10pm on Holmdale Terrace, a Jewish teenager was punched in the face by a man matching the attacker’s description. Which for all the neutral description of ‘white robe and white hat’ is a man in islamic dress. 

Stamford Hill, in the London borough of Hackney, is believed to have the highest concentration of Hasidic Jews in Europe.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “On Friday August 20 police received a third party report of an assault that occurred on Stamford Hill at approximately 8.30pm on Wednesday August 18. Officers have spoken with the 64-year-old victim and inquiries remain ongoing. There have been no arrests.”

The Metropolitan Police have released an image and footage of a man they want to identify and speak to in connection with the incident. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call police via 101 quoting reference Cad 4492/20Aug.

This might be a good moment to remind readers that it was 4 weeks ago that Christian preacher Hatun Tash was assaulted, her face slashed with a blade, missing her eyes, at Speakers Corner by another man also attired in a similar but black robe. So far as anybody is aware no arrests have been made, despite the amount of police officers and CCTV cameras at the scene, and the assailant’s companions being present at the scene. Instead of being rounded up for questioning they were dispersed.