Convicted killer sentenced for beating Jewish chaplain at UK prison

A convicted killer has been sentenced for an antisemitic attack in a British prison in which he broke the jaw of a Jewish chaplain.

Joseph Gynane shouted “Allah Akbar” as he attacked the chaplain at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire in September.

“Gynane punched the man to the back of the head with such force that he was knocked to the floor and continued punching him,” Cambridgeshire Police say in a statement. “The chaplain told officers he believed the attack was religiously motivated due to him being Jewish and wearing a black skull cap at the time.”

The victim was later found to have a broken jaw and thumb.

According to police, Gynane, jailed in 2019 for murdering his friend and stabbing a 16-year-old boy, had graffitied his cell with “Free Palestine” and “Death to the IDF.”

He was sentenced to 11 years for the antisemitic attack on top of his existing life sentence.

At the hearing, Judge Andrew Hurst noted that Gynane converted to Islam in 2007 and it was clear he held “antisemitic, florid and ideologically disturbing” views.

Hurst said there was a “very high risk of future assaults” from Gynane, who “will seek to harm innocent members of the Jewish community,” police say in a statement.