Two men who travelled across London to film themselves verbally abusing a Jewish man for a social media stunt have admitted committing a religiously aggravated hate crime, in a case that police say underlines the rising tide of antisemitism on the capital’s streets.
Adam Bedoui, 20, of Park Lodge Avenue, and Abdelkader Bousloub, 21, of Merrivale Mews, both Hillingdon, west London, pleaded guilty to a religiously aggravated public order offence at Thames Magistrates’ Court on Saturday. The pair were charged within 48 hours of the incident, the Metropolitan Police said.
According to officers, the two men set out from west London on the evening of Thursday 7 May with the deliberate intention of producing antisemitic content for the video-sharing platform TikTok. They travelled to Clapton Common in Hackney, an area associated with the capital’s substantial Orthodox Jewish community, before approaching a Jewish man at random and subjecting him to a torrent of abuse while filming.
Officers were called to the scene shortly after 9pm. Both men attempted to run when police arrived but were caught at the scene within moments, the Met confirmed.
Detective Superintendent Oliver Richter, who leads policing in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said the speed of the operation should send a clear warning to anyone considering similar offences.
“This was a deliberate and targeted antisemitic attack, aggravated by the pair’s intention to post the incident on social media to spread hatred,” he said. “It is completely unacceptable and has no place in London.”
He added: “Our officers acted quickly to arrest those responsible, and within 48 hours they have been brought before the courts and convicted. That should send a clear message — we will act decisively against anyone who commits hate crime. We know the harm incidents like this cause to communities and we will continue to take all reports with the utmost seriousness.”
Bedoui and Bousloub were both remanded ahead of sentencing, which is due to take place at the same court on Friday 5 June. According to GB News, the charges were brought under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Public Order Act 1986, the legislation typically applied to acts of intentional harassment carrying a religious aggravation.
Three further suspects — two men aged 20 and one aged 21 — were also arrested in connection with the incident. All three have been released on bail pending further enquiries.
The conviction comes against an increasingly grim backdrop for Britain’s Jewish community. Figures released by the Metropolitan Police on Saturday confirm that around 50 people have been arrested for antisemitic hate crimes in the capital over the past four weeks, with ten individuals already charged.
Earlier this week, Sir Mark Rowley’s force unveiled a new Community Protection Team consisting of 100 dedicated officers, drawn from neighbourhood, specialist protection and counter-terrorism units. The team is intended to provide a more visible and consistent presence in Jewish areas, and is the latest in a string of measures rolled out following the firebombing of four Hatzola volunteer ambulances in Golders Green in March.
That arson, which destroyed three of the volunteer-run vehicles, has been widely cited as the spark for an alarming string of incidents that has unfolded in north and west London ever since. Among the most serious was a double stabbing in Golders Green in which two Jewish men were wounded by an attacker before being subdued by police and members of a Jewish neighbourhood watch. Synagogues, an Iranian dissidents’ memorial and other community sites have also been targeted in arson attempts.
The Hackney case stands apart in one important respect. Unlike the firebomb plots being pursued by counter-terrorism detectives, this was an offence designed for social media — content explicitly produced, police say, to be amplified for online clout. That detail, Det Supt Richter said, was central to the gravity with which the prosecution treated it.
The Community Security Trust (CST), the charity that monitors antisemitism in the United Kingdom, has previously warned of a rise in confrontational street incidents in which Jewish people, often visibly Orthodox, have been singled out for abuse and filmed. Stamford Hill, the wider area encompassing Clapton Common, is home to one of the largest Haredi Jewish communities in Europe and has been the focus of repeated incidents over the past two years.
For the man targeted on Thursday night, the speed of the conviction will be of some comfort. For police, who only days ago announced the largest concentrated set of community protection measures the Met has ever deployed, the case is a snapshot of the type of offence they expect their new team to confront — and to confront quickly.
