Teen due in court charged with assaulting strictly-Orthodox shop owners

The teenage suspect accused of assaulting two strictly-Orthodox shop owners on a Stamford Hill street earlier this year is due to appear in court on Thursday.

Malachi Thorpe, 18, allegedly attacked Israel Grossman and Erwin Ginsberg as they were closing their shop for the evening on 27 January.

Security camera footage of the incident, which took place on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, showed a hooded man throwing repeated punches and knocking one of them to the ground.

Grossman and Ginsberg ended up being treated in hospital for a variety of injuries.

Thorpe faces two charges of racially or religiously aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of possessing an offensive weapon.

He had been due to enter a plea at Wood Green Crown Court in March, but the hearing was adjourned because he had been transferred to a hospital psychiatric ward.

His defence lawyer David Lyons said: “It appears from the prison that the defendant is a very unwell man at the moment”.

Cathryn Evans, prosecuting, described the alleged attack as “unprovoked”.