Teen robber who threatened to behead Aled Jones with machete strikes again

Zacariah Boulares, now 19, was armed with the fearsome weapon when he tried to steal a Rolex watch from Neil Tallantire (Picture: Metropolitan Police)

A teenager who threatened to cut TV presenter Aled Jones’s head off and left a Bridgerton star traumatised after trying to steal her phone has pleaded guilty to another attempted robbery with a machete.

Zacariah Boulares, now 19, was armed with the huge blade when he tried to steal a Rolex watch from Neil Tallantire.

The incident happened in broad daylight in Bayswater, west London, on August 19, 2023, six weeks after he had subjected Songs Of Praise star Jones to a robbery ordeal.

The Welsh baritone was walking along Chiswick High Road in west London when Boulares, then 16, pointed a machete at his face, stole his £17,000 Daytona Rolex watch, and threatened to decapitate him.

Boulares struck again in February last year when he was caught red-handed trying to steal Bridgerton actress Genevieve Chenneour’s mobile phone at a branch of Joe and the Juice on Kensington High Street.

Ms Chenneour said dealing with the trauma of the incident led her to consider leaving London.

On Thursday, Boulares appeared at Southwark Crown Court to plead guilty to the attempted robbery of Mr Tallantire and possession of the machete, outside Waitrose in Porchester Road, Bayswater.

Judge Mark Weekes asked the Crown Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan Police why it had taken so long for the youth to be brought to justice over the August 2023 crime, despite spending some of that time in custody.

He said: ‘The CPS and the police will need to provide a full explanation for how it has taken so long, not just for Mr Boulares’ point of view but for Mr Tallantire.

‘It has taken two and a half years, it’s on CCTV, in broad daylight in London, and he must be bewildered about what’s taken quite so long to bring this case to court.’

The judge will consider a finding of dangerousness against Boulares when he is sentenced on June 19, and the court is also expected to be presented with psychological reports on him.

Aled Jones was targeted in west London by Boulares who, then 16, pointed a machete at his face, stole his £17,000 Daytona Rolex watch (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

Medical experts will be assessing him for possible diagnoses of autism and ADHD, the court heard.

In July 2025, Boulares was sentenced to 22 months in prison at Isleworth Crown Court for a string of crimes, including the attempt to steal Ms Chenneour’s phone and a theft from a blind woman.

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Martin Edmunds KC, the Recorder of Kensington and Chelsea, said Boulares had targeted wealthy areas for ‘rich pickings’, in a ‘systematic pattern of stealing from people as they are enjoying a meal or refreshment at a restaurant’.

‘You seem to be plagued by an attitude that if people can afford nice things, then you can take them,’ he said.

‘It’s clear you are completely willing to use violence when challenged, and it’s a matter of the deepest regret that individuals have been left feeling they don’t want to come to London or they should leave London.’

Boulares struck again in February last year when he tried to steal Bridgerton actress Genevieve Chenneour’s mobile phone (Picture: LounisPhotography/ABACA/Shutterstock) Genevieve Chenneour as Clara Livingston in Bridgerton

The court heard that Boulares has already accumulated 12 convictions for 28 offences, including violence, threatening behaviour, weapon possession and theft.

Ms Chenneour had been waiting for her order at Joe and the Juice when Boulares came up behind her and reached out to grab her iPhone 14 from the side.

CCTV captured the moment he was confronted and wrestled to the ground.

He later admitted the crime and the theft of a blind woman’s handbag at Five Guys in Thurloe Street, Kensington, and stealing another woman’s rucksack as she dined at Pizza Pilgrims on Kingly Street, near Carnaby Street, in January and February 2025.

Boulares, from Feltham, south London, will remain in custody until sentencing in June (Picture: Metropolitan Police)

The attack on Mr Jones happened when Boulares was 16, when he could not be identified because of anonymity provisions in youth court proceedings.

Ealing youth court was told the teenager trailed the TV star along the road and pulled out a machete, shouting ‘give me your Rolex or I will cut your arm off’.

After the robbery, Boulares noticed that Mr Jones was following him from a distance, and he told him to ‘walk the other way or I will cut your head off’.

He was sentenced to a 24-month youth detention and training order, having also admitted stealing a £20,000 Rolex from a man in his 70s at Paddington station in west London in May 2023.

Boulares, from Feltham, south London, will remain in custody until sentencing in June for the latest charges he has admitted.

‘You must expect that on your return to court a substantial custodial sentence awaits,’ Judge Weekes told him before he was led away from the dock.

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