Attacker ‘travelled 200 miles to target Jews in Stamford Hill assaults’

A MAN travelled nearly 200 miles to “deliberately target” Orthodox Jews on the streets of Hackney, a court has heard.

- Tristan Kirk Courts Correspondent

Abdullah Qureshi, 29, from West Yorkshire, is accused of punching a 64-year-old man in the face and knocking him against a wall in a series of attacks in the space of two hours in Stamford Hill.

He is alleged to have also slapped a 16-year-old boy and hit another man on the head with a bottle, in incidents which shocked the Jewish community.

Prosecutor Varinder Hayre told Thames magistrates court that Qureshi, from Dewsbury, deliberately targeted Jewish people in “religiously motivated attacks.” She added: “The prosecution’s case is that Mr Qureshi had travelled all the way from West Yorkshire and specifically went to Hackney, a place that is specifically associated with the Jewish community, to deliberately target members of the Jewish community and carry out religiously motivated attacks.