Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

Son Is Charged In British Bagel Double Murder

A British man whose family owns a successful bagel bakery on Brick Lane in London’s East End appeared in court today accused of stabbing his mother and sister to death.

The Daily Mail reported today that Leah Cohen, 66, and her daughter, Hannah Cohen, 33, were found stabbed to death Friday evening in their home. Joshua Cohen, 27, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, according to the article, was arrested the night of the murder after being spotted in a park nearby.

Following the recent death of his father, Asher Cohen, Joshua Cohen was cut out of the family business, a popular bakery called Beigel Bake, while his brothers, Nathan, 30, and Daniel, 34, were named directors. The bakery is apparently known for its salt-beef bagel — what Americans would refer to as a corned-beef bagel sandwich.

Deborah Cohen, who is married to Daniel Cohen, was partners in a cake-making business called Coco Cakes with her sister-in-law Hannah Cohen. “She was the greatest cook,” Deborah Cohen told the Daily Mail. “We went over there every Sunday to eat together as a family and she made the most amazing food.”

“I’m very sad to say, there will be no more cakes by Coco Cakes,” read a message that was posted on the company’s Facebook page today.

Joshua Cohen is scheduled to appear in court again Wednesday for a bail hearing.

_Liza Schoenfein is the food editor of the Forward. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @LifeDeathDinner

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.