Muslim convert serving life for murder broke Jewish prison chaplain’s jaw in anti-Semitic attack and daubed his cell walls with ‘Free Palestine’
A man serving a life sentence for murder broke the jaw of a Jewish prison chaplain during a violent anti-Semitic attack and then wrote ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Death to IDF’ on his cell walls.
Joseph Gynane, 41, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as he attacked the visiting chaplain at high security HMP Whitemoor near Mart in Cambridgeshire at around 2.30pm on September 14, 2025.
Gynane, who converted to Islam in 2007, shot the priest in the back while he was talking to prisoners.
He punched the victim in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground, and continued the attack even after a prison officer sprayed him with PAVA irritant spray.
The priest was taken to Peterborough City Hospital and treated there for his broken jaw and broken thumb.
He told police officers that he believed the attack was religiously motivated because he was Jewish and was wearing a black Jewish skullcap at the time.
Gynane was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 30 years in 2019 for the murder of his friend, before a 16-year-old boy was stabbed with the same knife in London just hours later.
Following the latest attack, he was transferred to the prison’s isolation unit, where he covered his cell walls with graffiti including the phrases ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Death to the IDF’.
Joseph Gynane, 41, shouted ‘Allah Akbar’ as he attacked the visiting chaplain at high security HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire at around 2.30pm on September 14, 2025.
Gynane pleaded guilty to a charge of racially aggravated assault occasioning grievous bodily harm (GBH) in March.
At Cambridge Crown Court on Friday he was given a further 11 years in prison (six years plus five years on extended licence) on top of his existing life sentence.
Since there is a 30-year minimum, Gynane will not be eligible for release until at least 2055.
Sentencing, Judge Andrew Hurst said prison chaplains provided vital support and were ‘valued, cherished and to be protected’.
He said Gynane clearly held ‘anti-Semitic, ostentatious and ideologically disturbing’ views.
The judge added that Gynane had a “long record of serious violence, including stabbings”, and a “compelling record of prison violence”, with HMP Whitemoor having the highest number of assaults to his name.
Describing the incident as a ‘serious attack motivated by racial hatred’, Judge Hurst warned that Gynane was at ‘a very high risk of committing future attacks’ and added that Gynane would ‘seek to harm innocent members of the Jewish community’.
Detective Constable Emma Purser, of Cambridgeshire Police, said: ‘Gynane was already serving a life sentence for murder, but I am pleased that her sentence has been extended and she will face justice for her shocking and despicable actions.
‘The Jewish priest involved in this case was providing a valuable service and no one deserves to be attacked in this way, with such force, especially because of their religion.
‘I hope this case shows how seriously both the police and the courts take this type of crime and acts as a deterrent to others considering similar behaviour.’
Gynane stabbed Mohamed Elmi to death in an unprovoked attack in London’s Soho in 2019 and attacked a 16-year-old boy with the same kitchen knife just hours later.
Mr Elmi, 37, who had previously suffered a traumatic brain injury from an unprovoked attack, was stabbed several times by Gynane in early March and died three days later.
The young man, whose name was not disclosed, survived the attack.
During the hearing Gynane reportedly told officers: ‘How many times do I have to do this? I stabbed a lot of people, they won’t die.
‘I stabbed him fifteen to twenty times. I don’t want to be there anymore. I don’t care even if I kill someone. Everything I say is good news, everything is true.’
