Pro boxer jailed for part in rioting outside hotel housing asylum seekers

Luke Crowcroft, 30, was part of a mob which attacked a police van during the disorder at the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham on August 4.

A barrister representing a former professional boxer who was part of a mob which attacked a police van outside a hotel housing asylum seekers has told a judge it is “just bizarre” to everyone who knows him that he got involved in the violence.

Doncaster-based Luke Crowcroft, 30, was jailed for two years and six months at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday by a judge who heard how he was part of a group which tried to overturn a police van outside the Holiday Inn Express, in Manvers, Rotherham, on August 4, leaving those inside terrified.

Ed Moss, defending, told the court how Crowcroft was a successful boxer from an early age, represented his country as an amateur and later became the youngest professional.

He told the court: “This is a man who, all of his life, has been disciplined.”

Mr Moss said: “It is simply not in his nature. It is just bizarre to everyone who knows him why he was there and doing what he did.

“Out of character simply doesn’t do it justice”.

Mr Moss said Crowcroft was devoted to the 15-year-old son of his partner, who has a number of problems, and the defendant is a key part of his care.

He said: “He wishes me, on his behalf, to apologise to everybody – to the court, to the police, to his own family.”

Judge Sarah Wright was shown video footage of how the police dog van was violently rocked by a group outside the hotel.

The court was told how there was a chief inspector and a Pc inside, as well as a dog, and a statement from the junior officer outlined how he was terrified the vehicle was going to be overturned and set on fire.

The incident was part of wider rioting outside the hotel which left 64 officers, three police dogs and a horse injured.

There were 240 asylum seekers in hotel, which protesters tried to set on fire, and the court has heard how staff barricaded themselves in the kitchen with freezers, fearing they would die.

According to boxing data available on the internet, middleweight Crowcroft was nicknamed The Beast and had 14 bouts, with 11 wins.

He turned professional in 2012 and his last fight was in 2018.

Crowcroft, of Danesway, Scawthorpe, Doncaster, admitted violent disorder at a previous hearing.

The Independent