UK woman in London Islamophobic attack avoids jail

A British court has awarded a suspended 16-week jail term to a British woman, who was filmed abusing two Muslim women aboard a bus in north-west London in an Islamophobic attack.

The Hendon magistrates court said on Friday that it was suspending 36-year-old Simone Joseph's sentence for 18 months because she showed remorse for the attack.

Joseph was arrested after footage of the Islamophobic attack spread online. In the video said to be shot on October 13, Joseph can be seen verbally assaulting two Muslim women, one of whom was pregnant. In the video, she tells the Muslim women: "Go back to your country where they're bombing every day. Don't come to this country where we're free".

She accused them of supporting ISIS and also threatened to kick the belly of the pregnant woman so that she's unable to have a baby.

In her court appearance, Joseph said that "she was disgusted by her behavior" after the incident when she watched herself in the video.

The court also ordered her to pay £500 ($761.6) compensation to the pregnant victim. Joseph will also pay £180 ($274) for criminal court charges, in addition to completing 60 weeks of unpaid work.

A letter from one of the victims, Hanane Yakoubi, was also read at the court in which she said that she was having trouble sleeping at night because of the incident.

"Every time I go out I am afraid that something similar will happen as something like this has happened before because I am a Muslim," she said in the letter.