British expat escapes jail for stabbing Jewish man

The attack occurred in December 2011 when the Briton stabbed the Jewish man, a resident of France who was wearing a yarmulke, several times as he was about to get into his car with his family near the city’s natural history museum.

A magistrate’s court ruled on Wednesday that a jail sentence was not justified in the case, determining that the convicted man, diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, could benefit from treatment in an institution, the ATS news agency reported.

The prosecutor had sought a prison sentence saying there was no proof the man could benefit from such treatment.

The victim’s lawyer, Philippe Grumbach, said his client was subjected to “an abject and odious” act of anti-semitism, ATS said.

According to court evidence, the Jewish man could have suffered more serious injuries if his wife had not encouraged him to get into his car and to abandon a pram in the street.

The convicted man’s lawyer said his client had bought a knife for “ceremonies he was organizing” and he insisted the attack was not a premeditated act.

The Briton said he did not have the intention of killing the victim but maintained that at the time he was under the influence of an anti-semitic group, ATS reported.

“I am sorry,” he told the court.

The expat was arrested 10 months after the attack in a squat in the Netherlands before being extradited to Switzerland.