Child, 11, arrested over violent disorder at Middlesbrough riots
Over 110 arrested over riots in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough
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An 11-year-old child is now thought to be the youngest person to have been arrested over far-right riots in the UK.
Cleveland Police said they had detained the child as a part of a series of raids over riots in Middlesbrough.
The force have now arrested 110 people following the widespread trouble in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, which was some of the worst seen in recent memory.
The teams arrested 14 people aged 11 to 43 during a series of raids, in which some members of the media accompanied them on Wednesday.
Before the teams set out, Superintendent Marc Anderson briefed them, saying: “I was Silver Commander on Sunday August 4 and never in my 30 years’ service have I seen anything like that in Middlesbrough.
“What the community had to put up with that day was completely unacceptable.”
He warned officers to take their personal safety seriously and to secure the addresses they were raiding, given that suspects will know the courts have handed out hefty sentences for disorder.
One strike team, followed by the PA news agency, arrested two people – a man aged 23 and his 43-year-old mother – on suspicion of violent disorder, from an address in St Catherine’s Court, Middlesbrough.
Neighbours looked on in shock as the officers banged on the suspects’ door before they were led away, with the man covering his face with a hoodie.
The arrested woman yelled at the media to stop filming her as she was escorted to a police van.
The team then moved on to an address in Limerick Avenue, Stockton, Teesside, where a 25-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder.
He swore at the media as he was filmed being led to the police van, calling reporters “muppets” and saying: “Go and get some proper news.”
After the raids were successfully completed, Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Robinson, in charge of the operation to catch the Middlesbrough disorder suspects, said: “The message is ‘You haven’t got away with it’.
“We can identify you and we will arrest you, you will be arrested and you will be put before the courts.
“Behind every crime there is a victim and some of the stories that we have been told have been really harrowing.”