(JTA) — Two British 17-year-olds who brutally assaulted an Orthodox Jewish peer last month outside a Manchester tram station, fracturing his skull and causing a brain injury, have been sentenced to prison.
The assailants of 17-year-old Moshe Fuerst, both of whom pleaded guilty, were both sentenced Friday at Manchester Youth Court, the U.K. Mirror reported. One was sentenced to 18 months in jail, and the other to 12 months.
Police initially recorded the incident, which put Fuerst into a coma for several days, as a hate crime but have since decided it did not meet the threshold to be treated as a racially aggravated crime.
The teens were arrested a few days after the Sept. 5 attack, which took place in a Jewish neighborhood of north Manchester.
According to the Mirror, Chief Superintendent Wasim Chaudhry of North Manchester division said: “This was a vicious and unprovoked attack which has left a young man with a serious head injury and with on-going psychological issues.
“He is scared to leave his home and is understandably anxious about going into public as a result of this attack.”
