A 17-YEAR-OLD has pleaded guilty to arson after an attack on a synagogue in Harrow late on Saturday. 

The teenager, from Brent, who has not been named, admitted arson not endangering life at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today. 

In a statement, the boy claimed he “didn’t know it was a synagogue.” He said: “I have no hate towards the Jewish people of their community … I genuinely thought it was an empty building.”

In a written summary of the case, District Judge Nina Tempia was told CCTV footage showed the defendant climbing over the boundary wall at the Kenton United Synagogue.

He “appeared to throw something at a window to break it, before lighting an object with his left hand and throwing it with his right hand through the window.”

Seven more have been arrested on suspicion to commit a further arson attack on a Jewish site in London, the Met Police said today. 

The latest arrests saw three men aged 24, 25 and 26 held in Harpenden on Sunday, and on Monday a 25-year-old man arrested in Stevenage, as well as a 26-year-old man and two women aged 50 and 59 detained in a car near Birmingham. A 19-year-old man, also arrested after the attack, has been released on bail pending further inquiries.

The 17-year-old is due to appear at Willesden Youth Court on June 4.