logo
Alleged arsonist charged over fire at Australian synagogue

Alleged arsonist charged over fire at Australian synagogue

Yahoo18 hours ago
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A man was charged Sunday over an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue in an apparent escalation of antisemitic violence in Australia's second-most populous city.
Angelo Loras, 34, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court Sunday charged with arson, endangering life and property damage. He was also charged with possessing a 'controlled weapon' on Saturday when he was arrested. The charge sheet does not say what that weapon was.
The Sydney resident did not enter a plea or apply to be released on bail. Magistrate John Lesser remanded Loras in custody to appear in court next on July 22.
Flammable liquid was ignited at the door of the East Melbourne Synagogue, also known as the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, on Friday night as 20 worshippers shared a Shabbat meal inside.
The congregation escaped without harm via a rear door and firefighters contained the blaze to the entrance area of the 148-year-old building.
Rabbi Dovid Gutnick, who was inside the synagogue with his family on Friday, said security cameras showed the perpetrator ringing the doorbell twice moments before the flames erupted.
Gutnick's 13-year-old son was in the synagogue office at the time and decided against opening the door after seeing the visitor on the security camera monitor.
'We use the security cameras to assess people who ring the doorbell. Generally, we don't hesitate to let someone in,' Gutnick told The Associated Press.
'My son hesitated and didn't answer. By the time I came to the front, there was already smoke and flames coming in under the door,' he added.
It was the first of three apparent displays of antisemitic violence across the city on Friday and early Saturday morning.
Authorities have yet to establish a link between incidents at the synagogue and two businesses.
Antisemitism blamed for attacks on businesses
Also in downtown Melbourne on Friday night, around 20 masked protesters harassed diners in an Israeli-owned restaurant.
A restaurant window was cracked, tables were flipped and chairs thrown as protesters chanted 'Death to the IDF,' referring to the Israel Defense Forces. A 28-year-old woman was arrested at the scene and charged with hindering police.
Police are also investigating the spray-painting of a business in Melbourne's northern suburbs and an arson attack on three vehicles attached to the business before dawn on Saturday. The vehicles had also been graffitied.
Police said there were antisemitic 'inferences' at the scene. The business had also been the target of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past year.
Political leaders condemn antisemitism
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke met with Jewish leaders at the damaged synagogue on Sunday.
Burke told reporters that investigators were searching for potential links between the three incidents.
'At this stage, our authorities have not drawn links between them. But obviously there's a link in antisemitism. There's a link in bigotry. There's a link in a willingness to either call for violence, to chant violence or to take out violent actions. They are very much linked in that way,' Burke said.
'There were three attacks that night and none of them belonged in Australia. Arson attacks, the chanting calls for death, other attacks and graffiti — none of it belonged in Australia and they were attacks on Australia,' Burke added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the Australian government to 'take all action to deal with the rioters to the fullest extent of the law and prevent similar attacks in the future.'
'I view with utmost gravity the antisemitic attacks that occurred last night in Melbourne, which included attempted arson of a synagogue in the city and a violent assault against an Israeli restaurant by pro-Palestinian rioters,' Netanyahu said in a statement on Saturday.
'The reprehensible antisemitic attacks, with calls of 'death to the IDF' and an attempt to attack a place of worship, are severe hate crimes that must be uprooted,' he added.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

‘Hallmarks of Institutional Racism' Found in Police Killing of Aboriginal Man
‘Hallmarks of Institutional Racism' Found in Police Killing of Aboriginal Man

New York Times

time2 hours ago

  • New York Times

‘Hallmarks of Institutional Racism' Found in Police Killing of Aboriginal Man

A white police officer who fatally shot an Aboriginal teenager during an arrest attempt in 2019 held racist views that were 'normalized' in his department, a public inquiry found Monday in a long-awaited report that cast a harsh light on policing culture in Central Australia. A coroner read out the findings of the two-year-long inquest into the killing of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker in his outback community of Yuendumu, where he was shot three times by Constable Zachary Rolfe of the Northern Territory Police Department. The public inquiry found that before the shooting, the police force had ignored repeated complaints about Mr. Rolfe's violent treatment of Aboriginal people and that he had previously shared videos of forceful arrests with his family and friends, apparently for entertainment. Mr. Rolfe, 33, was charged with murder, a rare instance for a police officer in the line of duty. He has maintained that he shot Mr. Walker in self-defense, and was acquitted after a jury trial in 2022. The case touched off protests and became a rallying cry over police mistreatment of Indigenous Australians, a minority that is arrested and incarcerated at much higher rates than the rest of the population. The public uproar over and interest in the case had centered around what, if any, role racism had played in the fateful encounter between the two men. Mr. Rolfe fired the shots after he was stabbed by Mr. Walker in the shoulder with a pair of scissors during a scuffle. The teenager was dragged, bleeding, into a police vehicle as relatives watched. In her findings on Monday, Elisabeth Armitage, the coroner for the Northern Territory, said: 'I am satisfied that Mr. Rolfe was racist and that he worked in and was the beneficiary of an organization with hallmarks of institutional racism.' She traveled to the community — a three-hour drive from the nearest airport — to deliver her findings before residents in a dusty courtyard lined with gum trees, just a few streets away from the red-walled house belonging to Mr. Walker's grandmother, where he was killed. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

New photos show Erin Patterson's killer Beef Wellington as four major deceptions explained
New photos show Erin Patterson's killer Beef Wellington as four major deceptions explained

Yahoo

time4 hours ago

  • Yahoo

New photos show Erin Patterson's killer Beef Wellington as four major deceptions explained

New photographs have been released of the poisonous mushroom-laced Beef Wellington used by Erin Patterson to murder three elderly relatives of her estranged husband. After a week of deliberation, the jury found Patterson, 50, lured her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, to lunch at her home and poisoned them. The mother-of-two, from Leongatha, a small town southeast of Melbourne, Australia, fed them individual servings of Beef Wellington that contained death cap mushrooms. Jurors at the trial in Morwell, Victoria, also found Patterson guilty of attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather's husband and a Baptist church pastor, who survived the meal in the summer of 2023. During the trial, Wilkinson told jurors that Patterson had served her own separate meal on a different coloured plate. Her estranged husband had also been invited to the meal, but turned down the invitation the day before, according to messages shown to the court. Prosecutors told jurors that Patterson had employed four major deceptions in order to murder her guests. She first fabricated a cancer diagnosis to lure the guests to the lunch, then poisoned their meals while serving herself an untainted portion, the prosecution's leading barrister Nanette Rogers told the court. Patterson then lied that she was also sick from the food to avoid suspicion, before finally embarking on a cover-up when police began investigating the deaths, attempting to destroy evidence and lying to investigating officers, the prosecution said. Patterson, who said during the trial she had inherited large sums of money from her mother and grandmother, was the only witness in her defence, spending eight days on the stand, including five days of cross-examination. Patterson told the court about a life-long struggle with her weight, an eating disorder and low self-esteem, frequently becoming emotional as she spoke about the impact of the lunch on the Patterson family and her two children. She told the court she had lied about having cancer to her guests because she was embarrassed to admit she was actually having weight loss surgery. The defendant said she wanted her relatives' advice on how to tell her children about the surgery. She told the court she had also not become as ill as her guests because she secretly binged on a cake that her mother-in-law had brought to the lunch and then made herself sick. Patterson had pleaded not guilty to the four charges, claiming the deaths were accidental. She will be sentenced at a later date and could spend the rest of her life in prison. Read more As Erin Patterson is found guilty, how deadly are death cap mushrooms? (Yahoo Life) How Australian death cap mushroom trial unfolded - as Erin Patterson found guilty of murder (Sky News) Sweet-smelling fungi at centre of Australian triple-murder trial (AFP)

Car set on fire in suspected Dudley arson
Car set on fire in suspected Dudley arson

Yahoo

time4 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Car set on fire in suspected Dudley arson

EMERGENCY services were at the scene of a car fire in Dudley, with the blaze believed to have been started deliberately. Firefighters and police attended the fire on Sycamore Green on Friday July 4 shortly after 7.35pm. A fire engine from Tipton and a fire engine from Dudley attended, the first arriving within three minutes of being mobilised. A spokesman for West Midlands Fire service said: "This was a car fire on the road. "Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus extinguished the fire, which is believed to have been started deliberately. "After extinguishing hotspots, we left this incident at 8.45pm, with police colleagues in attendance." West Midlands Police have been contacted for comment.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store