A Rotherham man has been handed the longest prison sentence so far over the rioting in early August as he was jailed for nine years for his role in violence outside a hotel housing hundreds of asylum seekers.
A judge told Thomas Birley, 27, that his case was “unquestionably” one of the most serious of the dozens he had dealt with in the last month in relation to rioting outside the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers on 4 August.
Sheffield crown court heard that Birley, a painter and decorator from Swinton, in Rotherham, was involved in many of the worst incidents on that Sunday afternoon.
Birley added wood to a fire in a large industrial bin that had been pushed up against an exit of the hotel, and helped to pile another bin on top of the one that was already alight.
Wearing a mask over his face, Birley was also filmed throwing missiles at police, squaring up to officers while brandishing a police baton, and throwing a large bin that collided with a line of police holding riot shields.
He is the first person to be sentenced for arson with intent to endanger life after the 12 hours of violence in Manvers that left 64 police officers, three horses and a dog injured.
The judge, Jeremy Richardson KC, heard how 22 staff in the hotel barricaded themselves into a panic room using freezers and “thought they were going to burn to death”.
There were more than 200 asylum seekers in the building at the time, and the judge heard that automated fire alarms had told them to leave, but they were trapped inside the building.
Richardson said he needed to pass an extended sentence, which included an extended five-year licence period, due to Birley’s continuing dangerousness.
In Nottingham, an 81-year-old man is to go on trial accused of standing on the leg of a protester, reportedly to try to stop the man from getting away from police.
Keith Edwards appeared at Nottingham magistrates court on Friday, where he pleaded not guilty to using abusive or threatening behaviour with intent to cause fear of, or provoke, unlawful violence during a protest in the city on 3 August.
His solicitor said Edwards had no involvement in the protest and was assisting the police by putting his foot on the leg of a man they were trying to arrest.
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The district judge, Michelle Jeffreys, set the trial date for 7 October at the same court. Edwards, of Kinglake Place in Nottingham, was granted unconditional bail until that date.
In London, Jack Wood was jailed for 13 months after pleading guilty to violent disorder in Whitehall on 31 July.
Wood, from Rainham in Havering, east London, had claimed he was in the area to buy meat for his mother, who he cares for. The judge noted that Wood’s mother lives in Rainham and questioned why he bought meat for her in Whitehall, before concluding: “That is not the best point.”
In the same court, Jay Keeling, 27, of Hyland Way, Hornchurch, was sentenced to 16 months in prison, after pleading guilty to violent disorder over the same Whitehall incident. He had pushed into police and threw a beer bottle towards them, the court heard.
Source: theguardian.com
