Grandad among offenders jailed after wielding bicycle and being bitten by police dog during riot
Judges up and down country again sentencing perpetrators after ‘hate-fuelled’ violence
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A grandfather armed with a bicycle who was bitten by a police dog and a demonstrator who stole an officer’s riot shield during the riots are among the latest offenders to be jailed.
Judges up and down the country were again on Friday sentencing the perpetrators of the “hate-fuelled” violence that erupted across the UK in the wake of the Southport mass stabbings on 29 July.
The crimes included violent disorder as well as racially aggravated offences, with prison sentences handed out, including three years and three months for a rioter who played a leading role in the Southport unrest.
Two brothers who were at the forefront of rioting outside a hotel housing more than 200 asylum seekers in Rotherham were among those jailed, while a 15-year-old boy was spared detention after admitting to using threatening or abusive words or behaviour.
A grandfather was one of a number of men imprisoned for their role in the unrest in Hull earlier this month.
Michael Campbell, 56, was jailed for 20 months at Kingston-Upon-Hull Crown Court after he used a bicycle as a “makeshift cordon to deflect police officers” and to fend off a police dog before the animal bit him on the leg during the “hate-fuelled” 12-hour riot.
The ship loading supervisor, of Hull, was only in the city centre to buy himself a suit for a funeral when he became involved with the “mob violence”, the court heard, with the judge describing him as a “family man” whose behaviour had been “out of character”.
Daniel Mennell, 36, who was prominent at the front of the riot on 3 August, had pleaded guilty to violent disorder and was jailed for 27 months at the same court. The drunk labourer was seen taking a selfie with a stolen police riot shield and threw missiles at police.
“Hostile” Jackie Miller, 57, was jailed for eight months for a racially aggravated public order offence after she unleashed a “diatribe towards police officers” in the presence of her 15-year-old daughter, which the judge described as “disgraceful”.
Jarrod Farrah, 32, told his family “love you all” as he was jailed for two years and made the subject of a criminal behaviour order for violent disorder after he behaved aggressively towards police by “lunging” at them in Hull.
Judge John Thackray KC said it had been “depressing and horrifying” to watch footage of the disorder.
Two men who threw missiles at police during the Hull riots were also locked up after pleading guilty to violent disorder. Ben Chapman, 20, was sentenced to 32 months detention in a young offenders institution in total, while Joshua Hobman, 33, was jailed for two years, a sentence that was reduced as he has sole custody of his nine-year-old son.
In Sheffield, a court heard a self-employed gas fitter watched hours of rioting outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham while filming the violence on Snapchat. Christopher Rodgers, 38, of Barnsley, then turned on officers when he was bitten by a police dog three times – once “in an area of particular tenderness”.
The 38-year-old was jailed for two years at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday after becoming involved with a group that threw missiles at police on 4 August.
Brothers Luke Sissons, 34, and Paul Sissons, 37, both of Barnsley, have each been jailed for three years at the same court for their leading roles in the violence at the Rotherham hotel in Manvers, which involved rioters breaking into the building and trying to set it alight.
The pair are the latest of more than 20 men who have now been jailed over the Manvers disorder after they were involved in a range of violent incidents, including an attack on a police dog van and violent confrontations with riot officers.
Rory Allington-Mott, 34, was handed the longest sentence of the day at Liverpool Crown Court after police said he played a leading role in the Southport riot, throwing objects including bricks and a wheelie bin at police.
The 34-year-old, of Shropshire, has been jailed for three years and three months after pleading guilty to violent disorder.
A 15-year-old boy who swore at a police officer and said “I hope you die” during the ‘Enough Is Enough’ protest in Whitehall on 31 July was spared detention. The teenager, from Kent, was conditionally discharged for nine months and ordered to pay £105 in court and victim costs by a judge at Sevenoaks Youth Court who told him “please don’t come back to court again”.
Elsewhere, Louis McGrother, 22, of Middlesbrough was jailed for 20 months at Teesside Crown Court after kicking out at a police officer and setting fire to a wheelie bin during unrest in Middlesbrough. The “well-balanced young man” had admitted violent disorder.
And at Newcastle Crown Court, a former member of the English Defence League (EDL) who shouted “dirty Muslims” outside a mosque, along with other abuse, in widespread disorder in Sunderland was jailed for eight months. Racist and Islamophobic David Hann, 58, of Sunderland, had admitted causing racially aggravated fear of violence.
Jack Fowler, 24, of Newcastle, was sentenced to two years imprisonment at the same court after admitting violent disorder at the Sunderland riot. The drunk and masked father of a baby girl was holding a flag of St George and confronted police on 2 August.