An aristocratic property heir who called a leading campaigner against antisemitism “Jewish scum” has been jailed for four months and ordered to pay £20,000.
Piers Portman, 51, from Marylebone, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Friday for racially abusing Campaign Against Antisemitism chief (CAA) Gideon Falter in 2018.
Portman’s family owns the Portman Estate and his father is the 9th Viscount Portman.
He must pay £10,000 in court costs and a further £10,000 to his victim, who pledged to donate the full amount to CAA.
Justice Gregory Perrins told Portman: “You said you’re an honourable British gentleman. You’re anything but.”
“You have shown no insight at the impact of your offending and no remorse and continue to see yourself as the victim,” the judge also said.
Both he and Mr Falter attended a 2018 hearing involving Holocaust-denier Alison Chabloz-Tyler at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Portman approached Mr Falter as he got out of the lift and extended his hand to shake, which Mr Falter refused, at which point, Portman “got quite aggressive.”
Portman denied using the words “Jewish scum”, telling the court: “It’s not in my nature or character.”
But he was found guilty last month of one count of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress.
The court also heard that Portman wrote to Mr Falter in January 2018 claiming that his own wife and her divorce lawyer, Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia, who is also Jewish, were “greedy, grasping, thieving and lying criminal manipulator[s] of the system”.
Reacting to the news on Friday, Mr Falter said he was “extremely reassured” by the sentencing which he added “sends a very clear message to antisemites that even the wealthiest and most privileged cannot escape British justice.”
