Australian Acquitted in Bondi Beach Anti-Semitic Attack
A Sydney man whom police accused of participating in a brutal anti-Semitic attack last year was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Robert Clifford, 26, was charged last October with assault and possessing a knife. Police said he attacked five Orthodox Jews as they walked home from a Shabbat dinner near Bondi Beach. One of the victims, Eli Behar, suffered minor cerebral hemorrhaging and was hospitalized for two days.
But the case against Clifford, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, was dismissed earlier this week because the magistrate said he could not be satisfied Clifford had committed the alleged offenses.
The acquittal comes just weeks after the case against another man accused in the attack, Spartaco Marciano Di Bella, 24, was also withdrawn because the director of public prosecutions deemed there to be insufficient evidence that would lead to a conviction.
Two 17-year-old boys who were also charged are understood to be in a facility for minors.
The assault was described by Jewish leaders at the time as the worst anti-Semitic incident of its kind since records began in 1989.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.