Painter gets longest summer riots sentence so far as he is jailed for nine years

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A painter and decorator who helped fuel a fire outside a hotel housing hundreds of asylum seekers and attacked police with missiles during rioting in Rotherham has been jailed for nine years.

The prison sentence handed down to Thomas Birley, 27, is the longest so far given to a defendant arrested following the violence which erupted in many towns and cities in early August.

Sheffield Crown Court heard how Birley, of Rowms Lane, Swinton, Rotherham, was involved in many of the worst incidents outside the Holiday Inn Express in the Manvers area of the town, including adding wood to a fire in the large industrial bin which had been pushed against an exit and helping place a second bin on top of the one ablaze.

The recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, heard how 22 staff barricaded themselves into the hotel’s panic room with freezers and “thought they were going to burn to death” as smoke filtered through the building.

There were also more than 200 asylum seekers in the building and the judge heard how automated fire alarms told them to leave but they were trapped inside.

Masked Birley was filmed throwing missiles at the police, squaring up to officers while brandishing a police baton, and throwing a large bin which crashed into a line of police with riot shields.

The judge said his case was “unquestionably” one of the most serious of the dozens he has dealt with in the last month in relation to the rioting outside the hotel on 4 August.

The defendant became the first person to be sentenced for arson with intent to endanger life following the 12 hours of violence which left 64 police officers, three horses and a dog injured.

Judge Richardson said that due to Birley’s ongoing dangerousness, he needed to pass an extended sentence, which included an extended five-year licence period.

The judge said: “This case is unquestionably one of the worst of the many cases which have come before this court that have concerned the events at the Holiday Inn Express hotel.”

He told Birley: “The fact this immensely serious criminality, taken as whole, was perpetrated in the midst of exceptionally vicious public disorder, which was suffused with racism, whereby you were seeking to harm the occupants of a hotel – who were terrified inside that they were about to die – coupled to the concurrent attack upon the police, makes this one of the worst cases of arson with intent to endanger life, of its kind, which has come before the courts.

“In my judgment, I am entirely justified in moving outside the ordinary range of sentence.

“You intended that the occupants of the hotel should come to very serious harm and you plainly participated in a brutal attack upon the police who were bravely trying to keep order.

“I accept that you did not start the fire, but you added to it and helped fuel the flames.

“That is, frankly, as serious as starting it in the first place.”

Judge Richardson added: “You were a leading participant in an ignorant racist attempt at mob rule.”

The court heard how Birley was first caught on camera goading police, shouting, “f***ing nonce protectors” and smashing windows in the building.

After a section of the crowd managed to get into the hotel through a fire exit, he was spotted throwing a large sheet of chipboard into the burning industrial bin which had rammed against the door.

He then climbed onto railings to add further pieces of wood before joining a group which dropped another industrial bin onto the flames.

Judge Richardson said: “What took place in Rotherham that day had nothing whatever to do with legitimate public protest. It was a desire to perpetrate mob rule and commit very serious criminal offences in the process.

“It is clear beyond doubt that from first to last, the venom of racism infected the entirety of what occurred.

“The incident was part of wider national civil unrest fostered by a form of malignancy in society spread by malevolent users of social media. The disorder was racist and extremely frightening for anyone who was there.

“It was perpetrated by an ignorant mob of which you were part.”

The judge said he was particularly concerned about aspects of a pre-sentence report which pointed to Birley having an interest that “borders the territory, if not crosses it, to a white supremacist mindset”.

He said this report also pointed to Birley’s “deplorable and abusive upbringing” and problems he has had with alcohol.

Birley, who has previous convictions, including for racially aggravated harassment, admitted arson with intent to endanger life, violent disorder and possession of an offensive weapon at a previous hearing.