Bagel tycoon’s son ‘knifed mother and sister’

THE son of a man who built up a bagel empire stabbed his mother and sister to death after being kicked out of the family home for being “abusive”, a court heard yesterday.

Joshua Cohen, 28, repeatedly knifed Louise Cohen, 64, and Hannah, 33, in the basement of their £1.5 million house in Golders Green, north London, on Aug 11 last year, it is claimed.

The Cohen family are the owners of Beigel Bake, a world-renowned 24hour bakery in Brick Lane, east London, which was co-founded by Joshua Cohen’s late father Asher, who died in 2016 aged 81.

Joshua used to work at the bagel shop but “he was causing issues with customers”, the Old Bailey heard.

His brother Nathan Cohen, 31, told the court Joshua had moved into the annexe because he had become “abusive” and was “stealing”. Mr Cohen said Joshua didn’t have a key to the main house on Golders Green Crescent because “he used to argue or fight or be aggressive” with the family.

Mr Cohen, who found the bodies after returning home, choked back tears as he recounted finding his mother and sister. He said: “I went over to my mother and I was tapping her like ‘Mum! Mum!’ and I looked over to my sister and I did the same thing to her and she was very pale.

“It was obvious what happened.” A post-mortem examination revealed that Louise, a mother of five, had suffered 13 stab wounds to her head, face, neck, trunk and right arm, as well as several defensive wounds to her hands.

The court was told she had also sustained a traumatic brain injury, “most likely as a result of multiple blows to her head and face with a heavy blunt object”.

The court heard this may have been a meat tenderiser, or an iron.

Hannah Cohen died from a stab wound to the neck that cut through the right carotid artery and she had no defensive injuries.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of London, ruled that Joshua Cohen was not fit to plead to the two charges of murder due to his mental health. He told the jurors before they were sworn that they must decide not whether he was guilty of an offence but whether or not he “did the act” of killing his mother and sister.

The trial of issue continues.