A 17-year-old pleaded guilty in northwest London to arson that damaged a synagogue with smoke, telling the court he did not know the targeted building was a synagogue and that he did not bear ill will toward Jewish people. The teenager appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where the charge was arson “not endangering life,” according to the case described by the Associated Press.
Prosecutors and police said surveillance footage showed the teen climb over a wall at Kenton United Synagogue, in Harrow, on Saturday night. The footage, as described in the AP account, showed the teen set light to a bottle of liquid and throw it through a broken window. Firefighters’ response did not involve any injuries, and the incident resulted in some smoke damage.
In written remarks, the teenager told the court he did not intend to harm anyone and that he was unaware the building was a synagogue. “I have no hate toward the Jewish people,” the AP account quoted from the teenager’s written statement. “I am very sorry for my actions.”
After the court appearance, the teen was released on bail and ordered to return to Willesden Youth Court on June 4, according to the AP report. Police arrested and released a 19-year-old during the investigation and said they were seeking two other suspects.
The guilty plea was reported as part of a wider run of separate assaults against Britain’s Jewish community in recent weeks. Police and prosecutors described a series of arson attacks dating back to March 23, when four ambulances owned by a Jewish charity that serves people of all faiths in Golders Green, north London, were torched. Police said no one was injured in any of the incidents described.
Investigators have also looked at potential links between the incidents and wider conflict dynamics in the region. Police said they were considering whether Iran is behind six recent attacks, including an attack on a Persian-language media organization that is critical of Iran’s government, as part of a hybrid war fought by proxies amid the U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.
The AP account also reported that counterterror police had arrested 23 people so far, with seven held on suspicion of conspiring to set fire to an unspecified Jewish venue, according to London’s Metropolitan Police. A group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, also described as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, claimed responsibility for most of the attacks in Britain, police said, and Israel said the group has suspected links to “an Iranian proxy.”
The court appearance focused on the specific Kenton United Synagogue incident, but it landed against the backdrop of a broader investigation into whether the arson attacks represent a connected pattern and what role, if any, foreign influence might play in them.