Elderly Jew punched until bloody in London ‘definitely a hate crime’

“He was punching him violently and right in the face with a closed fist, The older gentleman was utterly defenseless,” a witness said.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

A well-built man in his 30s asked an elderly man if he was Jewish before launching a savage assault on Tuesday afternoon at Highbury Corner in north London.

Witness Marian Kennedy said the attack was totally unprovoked. She was still shaking two hours later, the Islington Gazette reported.

“He was punching him violently and right in the face with a closed fist,” she said, according to the Gazette. “The older gentleman was utterly defenseless. He was being hit really hard, and my instinct was jump between them but there was so much rage and violence.

“There was nothing I could do. The older man was not retaliating at all. He was just standing there as the guy repeatedly swung.”

Kennedy tried telling the assailant to stop. He replied that the victim had hit him with his cane but she didn’t believe him, the report said.

“Blood was pouring from the old man’s mouth and his body must have taken a lot of blows. The attacker ran off very fast. He was manic,” she said. “The older man said he’d never seen him before. It was a random attack.”

A passerby, Brittany Russell, told the Gazette: “The old man told us that he was standing there to catch his breath when the man came up to him and was asking if he was Jewish.

“Following that the man started to hit him and that’s when I was walking past with my mum. My mum and I, along with three others, stood with the victim when another lady ran onto the road to alert a police van nearby.”

The attacker was last seen running from the scene, the Gazette reported. “Officers are investigating reports of a racially aggravated public order offence,” a police spokesperson stated.