An anti-Semitic activist who verbally abused Dame Helen Mirren in the street has been named. Tom Carroll, from north London, who has a history of posting offensive content online, is understood to have confronted the national treasure while she was with her husband Taylor Hackford in London, calling her an “evil Zionist b****”.
The moment was captured in a video shared on the Instagram account ‘Anti-Fascist Action UK’, which reposted the clip from November 2025 on Wednesday, confirming that the person who ran the account shot the video. The Daily Mail established the Instagram was linked to a YouTube and PayPal account run by Carroll, who has also been tagged in posts linked to the account.
The video showed Dame Helen asking the stranger if he was okay as he approached her. But the filmer launched a verbal attack on the actress.
He said: “And there is Helen Mirren the avowed Zionist. You said Israel should last forever because of the Holocaust. And she was very happy the Palestinians’ houses were gone. You are an evil Zionist b****. And you [Mr Hackford] as well, f*** you as well.”
Mr Hackford repeatedly told the man to “f*** off” as the situation grew hostile, and asked him to leave them alone. Dame Helen has long been outspoken in her support for Israel.
Antisemitic conspiracy theories have reportedly been posted on his Instagram, including suggesting the Bondi Beach shooting was a “false flag” or “staged”. Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed Akram shot and killed 15 people during a Hanukkah celebration.
The account has also reposted memes, including one that said: “It’s okay to be antisemitic.”
In 2018, Carroll was wanted in connection with an assault on an 84-year-old woman at Shoreditch station. Five years later he handed himself into police and the Crown Court accepted his plea of not guilty to assault, but he was sentenced to a 12 month community order and 200 hours unpaid work for a public order offence of threatening behaviour.