A 36-year-old man was sentenced Friday to five years in prison after pleading guilty to a months-long campaign of antisemitic threats targeting Jewish residents near a shul in north London, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Tavius Jean Charles, of Hackney, east London, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court after admitting to eight offenses against six victims, including religiously aggravated threatening behavior and religiously aggravated criminal damage committed between October 2025 and March 2026. The total sentence includes a two-and-a-half-year term for two drug-related offenses from 2024, possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and possession of cannabis.

Jean Charles was arrested on March 24 following reports of a man shouting antisemitic abuse and throwing a rock at the window of a moving car. The court heard that his conduct escalated over a period of months in the streets surrounding the Belz Shul in Stamford Hill, the heart of London’s largest Orthodox Jewish community.

On March 16 at 1:45 p.m., while outside the Belz Shul, Jean Charles shouted “Oi, I’m gonna kill you, not just you, all of you [expletive] Jews” at the shul’s manager, Baruch Bard, and his son.

About thirty minutes later, Yoel Scher was driving along Heathland Road when Jean Charles shouted “I will kill you Jews” at his passing car. Jean Charles then threw a stone, smashing the Toyota Estima’s passenger window and causing £205 worth of damage.

Prosecutor Sam Lyon said Jean Charles was overheard by George Stamatakis on Dunsmere Road in Stamford Hill on March 24 saying on his phone, “It would be good if we blew up one of their schools.” The court was told Stamatakis believed Jean Charles was referring to a Jewish school, and that Jean Charles then asked him, “Are you Jewish?” Jean Charles was arrested later that day.

The earliest of the documented incidents took place months before his arrest. On November 24, 2025, Bard’s nephew, Dovid, was standing by his car outside the Belz Shul when Jean Charles, who lived near the shul, demanded to know his personal details, including his address. When Bard refused, Jean Charles told him, “What do you mean you’re not obliged. Do you want to lose your life? Do you want to lose your life? No. Then leave now.”

Sentencing Jean Charles, who appeared from prison via video link, Judge Dafna Spiro described his conduct as a “sustained and deliberate campaign of antisemitic behaviour carried out over a number of months.”

In addition to the prison term, the court imposed a restraining order barring Jean Charles from entering Stamford Hill and from contacting his victims.

Varinder Hayre, district crown prosecutor and hate crime lead for the CPS London North area, said in a statement that the case had been built on overwhelming evidence. “After presenting this overwhelming evidence to Jean Charles in court, he felt he had no choice but to change his pleas to guilty less than 30 days after he had first claimed he was innocent,” Hayre said.

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