The accused, Isher Campbell, who is a 34-year-old resident of the city of Birmingham, denied the claims against him on the charge of “racially aggravated abusive behavior” towards the family.In the video, a husband and wife were travelling with their three young children. Campbell told the family during the November 2019 ride that they are members of “the Church of Satan,” and said that Jews were behind the slave trade and the 9/11 attacks.
“These people are impostors, they’re trying to claim our heritage,” Campbell further claimed.
The accused also denied the claim that he harassed the Muslim woman who came to the defense of the Jewish family. In the video, Campbell could be heard saying, following the intervention of the Muslim woman, to “get out of my face or I will smack you right in your nose.”
It was reported that Campbell was facing another charge of racially-aggravated abuse toward another Jewish man on the same subway from August 2019, a claim he also denied. Campbell is due to appear in court again in September.
Following an outpouring of praise for the Muslim woman's intervention in the incident, she was reported saying, “When he started talking to the [Jewish] child I thought, no, I have to say something.
“To be honest I thought it is my duty as a mother, as a practicing Muslim, as a citizen of this country, to have to say something.”
In the United Kingdom, expressions of hatred toward someone due to their "color, race, disability, nationality (including citizenship), ethnic or national origin, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation" is strictly forbidden, and a person caught engaging in such acts can be liable to criminal prosecution.