The vandalized war memorial in the Welsh town of Rhyl. Photo: Richard Kendrick/Facebook.

A UK man with a previous record of antisemitic harassment has appeared in court, charged with defacing a war memorial in a coastal town in North Wales.

Gareth Bradley, 31, a resident of the Welsh town of Rhyl, was charged with having vandalized the memorial with a series of offensive messages that insulted Jewish victims of the Holocaust, along with British service personnel who lost their lives in both World Wars.

Images of the damaged memorial showed that among the messages daubed by Bradley were the words “choke on chlorine, Tommy” — referring to the use of poison gas and other chemical weapons during World War I — and the slogan “this is the time for the Reich” in badly-written German. A Nazi swastika and the insignia of the SS were also scrawled on the memorial.

Addressing Llandudno court on Monday, prosecutor James Neary said that Bradley had previously targeted a member of the Jewish community. He argued that the Bradley’s latest crime warranted sentencing by a crown court judge.

Craig Hutchinson, a lawyer for Bradley, said that his client had been compulsorily placed in a mental hospital under the terms of the British Mental Health Act and that his condition had improved.

However, Paul Conlon, the district judge in Llandudno, concluded that Bradley’s “offenses are too serious for this court to deal with.”

Bradley is currently on bail awaiting sentencing next month.