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Boy, 14, sentenced after throwing bricks at police vans in Manchester

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September 17, 2024
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Let’s head to Manchester Magistrates’ Court where a 14-year-old boy has just been sentenced for “cowardly and shameful” violent disorder outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in the city.

The boy, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was celebrating his 14th birthday when he joined a group of adults and youths who threw missiles at police and the Holiday Inn, Newton Heath, on 31 July.

Magistrates were shown CCTV footage of the teenager throwing bricks at police vans and kicking a bus.

The bus driver was later assaulted, although the boy was not involved in that attack, the court heard.

The court was told the boy was also part of a group goading police officers and trying to knock their helmets off. The boy, who pleaded guilty to violent disorder at an earlier hearing, said he was “ashamed” and “very sorry” for what he had done.

District Judge Margaret McCormack gave the boy a 12-month referral order and described his behaviour as “wicked” but accepted he had made a “stupid mistake” and was sorry for what he had done.

The boy’s mother, who was in court, was ordered to pay £150 compensation to the bus driver.

BBC News

Boy arrested on 13th birthday sentenced for throwing egg at police

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September 17, 2024
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A bit more now from Manchester Magistrates’ Court where a teenager who was arrested on his 13th birthday, for his part in violent disorder outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in the city, has just been sentenced.

The teenager, who was 12 at the time of the incident in July, was given a 12-month referral order by District Judge Margaret McCormack.

The hearing was told he threw objects at police, including an egg, and also goaded police officers.

District Judge McCormack told the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, that the group of adults and youths outside the Holiday Inn were “terrorising people trying to go about their daily lives”.

“You may have been 12 but you knew what you were doing was wrong”, she told him.

In defence, the court was told the boy was “not a racist” and was “ashamed by his actions” .

His mother, who was in court, was ordered to pay £150 compensation to a bus driver, who was assaulted by others during the violence.

BBC News

Neo-Nazi found with home ‘armoury’ guilty of terrorism offences

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September 17, 2024
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A neo-Nazi who amassed an “armoury” at his home in Stirlingshire has been found guilty of crimes including plans to commit an act of terrorism.

Alan Edward, who had nearly 28,000 followers on social media, had discussed an attack on a LBGT group in Falkirk, the High Court in Stirling heard.

The 54-year-old was arrested after armed police surrounded his end-terrace house in Redding, Falkirk, in September 2022 and broke down his front door.

He denied all the offences, but a jury found him guilty of charges under the Terrorism Act, racism, anti-Semitism, holocaust denial and breach of the peace.

The trial heard that Edward wrote the “the quickest way to someone’s heart is with a high power 7.62mm round”.

Police found weapons and equipment including a crossbow, 14 knives – some with Nazi and SS insignia, machetes, a tomahawk, a samurai sword, knuckledusters, a catapult, an extendable baton and a stun gun.

They also found an air pistol, an SS-style skull mask, goggles and a respirator, fighting gloves with hardened knuckles, pellets, ball bearings, and hunting tips for crossbow arrows.

Prosecutors said it amounted to “an armoury” of weapons.

Edward also had an indoor cannabis plantation that he was growing to sell.

The court heard he possessed and expressed “a set of ideals with a neo-Nazi outlook, incorporating notions of white supremacy, the notion of racial purity of whites, racism, anti-semitism, and hatred of homosexuals and transgender people”.

Sinister exchanges

A document found on his computer referred to Norweigian neo-Nazi mass murderer Anders Breivik as “Saint Anders”.

Checks on his WhatsApp account found he had been messaging an associate in nearby Grangemouth about the proposed attack on an LBGT group.

In a series of exchanges described by the prosecution as “incredibly sinister”, he said: “They have been pushing their luck for years, now they will pay in blood.”

He added: “We should get masked up and go do a few of them in at their little gay club.”

Other messages targeted communists and Jews.

The court also heard that Edward had two accounts on Gab, a free speech social media platform popular with the far right.

He came to the attention of counter-terrorism investigators after posting a video of a National Action rally held in 2016 – shortly before it became the first far-right group to be proscribed in the UK under the Terrorism Act.

Prosecutor Paul Kearney KC said Edward was “a man who with clear neo-Nazi ideals – preparing for an act of terrorism which would include an ideologically-driven incident of serious violence”.

Judge Fiona Tait deferred sentence until 21 October at the High Court in Edinburgh.

BBC News

Pallister Park teen joined riot for ‘sheer excitement and adrenaline’ then hurled rocks at cops

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September 17, 2024
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Lennox Crockett travelled from his Pallister Park home to join the riot in Hartlepool in July



A teen who got involved in the Hartlepool riots for “the sheer excitement and adrenaline” has been sent to a Young Offenders Institution.

Lennox Crockett handed himself into police after he was caught on bodycam footage throwing rocks at a line of police, from close quarters, in the midst of the screaming and chaos of the riots on July 31. The 19-year-old was dressed all in black, with his hood up, but was captured arguing with police as they shouted at rioters to move back.

He was seen encouraging others, including children, to push at the police line. On Monday, every seat in court one at Teesside Crown Court was taken, as Crockett’s mother and extended family attended his sentencing.

The Middlesbrough court watched police bodycam footage, showing Crockett repeatedly throwing rocks at riot officers, who held up their plastic shields to protect themselves from being hit. The court heard that weeks before the riot, Crockett was arrested after police were called out to a report of a burglary.

Officers followed CCTV of a group of men running away from a house, towards a block of flats on Burwell Road, in Ormesby, Middlesbrough. They found him in a flat, with other men, sitting around a table with cannabis and cocaine on it.

Police reported nitrous oxide canisters lying around on the floor of the flat. Crockett told officers that all of the drugs were his and that he was “having a party.”

Crockett, of Denham Green, Pallister Park in Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and to the possession of class A and B and C drugs; and failing to surrender to custody – after he failed to turn up at Teesside Magistrates’ Court on September 5.

He has a previous conviction from July 15, for the possession of nitrous oxide for wrongful inhalation. In mitigation, Michele Turner said that all of her client’s offending is recent and “it is to fit in”.

The defence barrister said: “He took it on himself to protect others, who he feels he’s been befriended by” when he admitted to the drugs. Ms Turner said that Crockett was expelled from primary school at a young age and that “he has been affected by the stigma of going to special school. He left with no qualifications”.

“This is a man who has been trying to fit in since early childhood,” she said. “At primary school he felt like he never understood what was going on around him and he struggled to make friends. He learnt that if he acted the fool, he got laughs and he got recognition.”
‘Sheer excitement’

Ms Turner said that Crockett has learning difficulties and struggles to read and write; he doesn’t have a bank account; he doesn’t understand that he is entitled to benefits and that “he relies on his mum and extended family for everything”.

“He travelled to Hartlepool for the violence that was going on” Crockett’s solicitor added, “it was the sheer excitement and adrenaline – I think is the way to explain his involvement. His fight was against the police.”

Judge Francis Laird told Crockett: “I recognised your struggle with school and that you lack many of the tools necessary for an independent life. Your mother largely supports your lifestyle which unfortunately in recent times, has revolved around recreational drugs.”

The judge said that he was “encouraged” by the number of people in court and that Crockett “clearly comes from a loving and caring family.” “I will pass no separate penalty for the drugs offences and failing to surrender to custody,” the judge said, before sending Crockett to a Young Offenders’ Institution for 18-months.

Gazette Live

Man admits violent disorder and assaulting police

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September 17, 2024
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A man has admitted violent disorder and assaulting a police officer during the unrest in Stoke-on-Trent last month.

Father-of-one Tyler Marchese, 21, pleaded guilty to the offences committed when the disorder broke out in Hanley on 3 August.

During a hearing at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on Monday, Judge Sally Hancox said Marchese would “almost inevitably” receive a custodial sentence.

“You have taken a very sensible step to accept your involvement in the events on 3 August. Your sentence must be one that reflects your part in it,” she said.

Marchese, of Norris Road, Stoke-on-Trent, will be sentenced in the same court on 27 September.

Staffordshire Police recently said it had arrested more than 80 people and charged more than 30 following the disorder in Stoke-on-Trent on 3 August and in Tamworth on 4 August.

Riots and anti-immigration protests took place across the UK after three young girls were killed in Southport, Merseyside, on 29 July.

The action was fuelled by false claims on social media that the attacker was an asylum seeker.

BBC News

Bored teen ran into smashed asylum hotel in riot

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September 17, 2024
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A teenager who ran into a hotel housing asylum seekers after large crowds smashed windows and doors during large-scale disorder has been told he will be detained for more than two years.

Ashley Lowe, 19, was among a group who attacked police outside the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham, on 4 August.

He went to the trouble “because there was nothing else to do” and it led to him kicking fence panels and entering the building, Sheffield Crown Court was told.

Lowe, of North Street, Darfield, admitted violent disorder and was told he would serve two years and two months at a youth offenders’ institution.

Family members in the public gallery cried during the hearing, where Lowe was seen to have participated in the disorder in footage played to the court.

A photo from the scene showed him near a group of people who were throwing items at officers.

Former professional boxer Luke Crowcroft was also jailed for his role in the violence.

He was filmed on CCTV rocking a police dog van, leaving the officers inside fearing it would be tipped over.

Crowcroft, 30, of Danesway, Doncaster, was arrested on the 27 August, more than three weeks after the violence.

He pleaded guilty to violent disorder at an earlier court appearance.

Character references sent to the judge outlined how he had engaged in charity work and represented his country as a boxer at a young age.

“All of his life he has been disciplined… save for that day,” his barrister said in mitigation.

“He wishes to apologise for the shame he has brought on his own family.”

He was jailed for two years and six months.

Ben Beardsley, 38, of Hall Gate, Mexborough, Doncaster, also pleaded guilty to a charge of violent disorder.

He wore a white Guy Fawkes mask during his part in the trouble, the court was told.

He was filmed throwing lumps of concrete towards police officers, with his defence counsel adding he was drunk during the disorder.

In court, the father-of-two was jailed for two years and eight months.

Joshua Webb, 21, of Hartington Close, Rotherham, went to the hotel “out of curiosity” before becoming embroiled in the violence, the court was told.

Video filmed by a resident showed Webb, wearing a “distinctive” Icon tracksuit throwing pieces of wood towards the police line.

He was jailed for two years and six months, with his sentence being reduced following his co-operation with police.

“You made a very poor decision to attend,” Judge Sarah Wright told him during the hearings in courtroom number seven.

‘Chill out’

A man who was charged with arson being reckless as to whether life was in danger also appeared in court.

He pleaded guilty to the offence, along with a count of violent disorder.

The arson charge related to a disused generator on the edge of the hotel car park.

Scott Greenwood, 34, of Tingle Bridge Lane, Hemingfield, started speaking with someone in the public gallery, leading to the judge telling him to be quiet.

He replied: “Alright mate, chill out.”

He claimed he “hadn’t even done owt” when questioned by the judge for speaking during the hearing.

When told to leave, he shouted to the public gallery: “See you in a bit”.

In his absence, a sentencing date was set for 16 October.

BBC News

Protester jailed for assaulting police officer

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September 17, 2024
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A man has been jailed for 14 months after assaulting a police officer during an anti-immigration protest.

Ian Wyn Thomas, 47, of Elliott Road in Bournemouth, Dorset, attended the protest on The Esplanade in Weymouth on 4 August.

Dorset Police said he was seen to confront and push an officer, before throwing his right hand toward their head, which the officer blocked with their arm.

He pleaded guilty to violent disorder and assaulting an emergency worker at Bournemouth Crown Court on 10 September.

Thomas was identified following a review of footage and other evidence gathered from the protest, the force said.

An estimated 400 anti-immigration protesters gathered in Weymouth on 4 August. There were also about 200 Stand Up to Racism demonstrators.

It was one of a number of violent outbreaks across England and Northern Ireland, following the fatal stabbing of three girls in Southport – with unrest fuelled by misinformation online.

Another man, James Ashley Hepburn, 31, from Portland, was previously charged with encouraging or assisting in the commission of offences of murder believing one or more will be committed.

The charge, in connection with the same protest, was discontinued at Bournemouth Crown Court on 30 August.

He will instead appear at Poole Magistrates’ Court on 30 September charged with using threatening, abusive, insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear or provocation.

BBC News

Couple in asylum hotel riot leave jail after month

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September 17, 2024
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A couple who were part of a mob outside a hotel housing asylum seekers during the summer’s riots have been freed after serving a month in jail.

Michelle Jibson, 45, and her partner Tracy Pearson, 53, both of Kingsbridge Road, Manchester, had been in custody since they both admitted violent disorder at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on 12 August.

They were part of a mob outside the Holiday Inn in Newton Heath in Manchester on 31 July.

Bottles, bricks and eggs were thrown at the hotel by the crowd outside as riot police struggled to keep order following the widespread riots in the aftermath of the deaths of three children who were stabbed in Southport.

‘Learned a particularly hard lesson’

Jibson had been shoved by a police officer trying to disperse the crowd and reacted by shoving him back.

Manchester Crown Court heard Pearson had “expressed some trenchant, distasteful views, very loudly”.

Judge Patrick Field KC said he accepted Pearson had not acted violently herself, but added: “This level of intolerance was deeply shaming to everybody involved.

“You were emboldened to do what you did.

“This case illustrates, however, how important it is to think carefully before accepting all you have read online.

“The online world, as you now know is full of traps for the unwary.”

He told Jibson she had reacted inappropriately to a police officer trying to move her on from outside the hotel.

But he said he accepted both women had not acted maliciously and in the last month, custody had meant they had been apart for the first time in their 25-year relationship.

Judge Field said: “I am of the view you both have learned a particularly hard lesson.”

He gave Pearson a six-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months.

Jibson was given an 18-month community order, with both women ordered to carry out 15 days of rehabilitation activity.

BBC News

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

By
September 16, 2024
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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

Anti-vaxer in Chris Whitty violence post guilty of encouraging terror

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September 14, 2024
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Patrick Ruane, 55, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of two charges of encouraging terrorism in a series of Telegram posts.

An anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist who suggested “whacking” Professor Sir Chris Whitty over the head with a rounders bat has been found guilty of terrorism charges.

On Friday, Patrick Ruane, 55, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of two charges of encouraging terrorism in a series of Telegram posts in which he advocated the use of weapons, guns and explosions.

He was cleared of collecting information useful to a terrorist, relating a manual entitled Anon – How To Make A Jolly Roger which was said to include viable instructions on making Semtex.

The jury had deliberated for seven hours and 21 minutes to reach guilty verdicts by a majority of 10 to two.

Judge Richard Marks KC adjourned sentencing until November 8 and granted Ruane conditional bail but stressed that his position was “very serious”.

Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker said it was likely the Crown would argue that Ruane had specifically targeted individuals, such as the chief medical officer for England Sir Chris, and the chief executive officer of Pfizer.

Ruane had replied to a post about Sir Chris, saying: “The weakest point of the scull (sic) is the back of the scull (sic) and all it would take is riding a bike very fast and whacking target over the back of head with a rounders bat but a mace (a piece of metal ball and chain) would be way better which if done right would turn said target into a vegetable for the rest of its life.”

And in response to the creator of the AstraZeneca vaccine getting a standing ovation at Wimbledon, he commented: “It’s a shame there was not a sharp shooter to take that f****** POS out.”

Ms Faure Walker had told jurors that Ruane was “angry, frustrated and upset” about lockdown policies and the vaccine rollout when he posted messages to thousands of Telegram users in 2021.

He believed conspiracy theories about a “hidden agenda” and was particularly focused on manufacturers of the Covid vaccine and those who administered jabs, she said.

In one post, Ruane wrote: “I’m all for hunting them down and f****** executing them where they stand as too many people have f****** died and it’s not going to stop until we start killing them back.”

When someone posted about not allowing a “satanist puppet” to come near his children with “that poison jab kill shots”, the defendant encouraged others to “find where they live put a kill squad together and shoot” them in their beds.

In response to another post, he advocated burning “all the big pharmas offices manufacturing plants and infrastructure” to the ground.

The court heard Ruane referred to executing politicians, saying the manufacture of ammunition for sniper weapons “could end corrupt politicians and Davos scum in one shot”.

Ruane, an audio producer who worked in films, posted images of Semtex and when asked about delivery, wrote “Why deliver when you can make it yourself,” jurors were told.

He called for an “IRA play book” to be implemented after then-prime minister Boris Johnson extended powers for a further period.

The defendant also suggested destroying 5G communications, saying in one post: “5g towers are easy, Semtex, easy to make recipies (sic) on the http://www.”

Ms Faure Walker had told jurors that the posts spanned many months and encouraged serious violence and disruption designed to influence the government or intimidate a section of the public.

Ruane’s posts reached a “very large audience” through two Telegraph chat groups, one of which had 18,000 users and the other 8,000, she told jurors.

She suggested some of those who viewed messages could “have a range of susceptibilities”, adding the posts could have spread more widely by being forwarded on by others.

The defendant’s electronic devices were seized when police went to his flat in November 2021.

In police interview, he referred to making “props” for a film, but did not elaborate on why he needed instructions for the explosives for that.

He told police he had lost his business during the last lockdown and was drinking a lot.

Ruane, of Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, west London, had denied the charges against him and claimed his film work gave him a reasonable excuse for having the manual with Semtex instructions.

Following the verdict, acting commander Gareth Rees, from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Our investigation found large numbers of posts by Ruane where he was encouraging others to carry out extremely violent acts, all because he didn’t like the government’s response to the pandemic.

“This wasn’t idle chit-chat online – he was encouraging people to seriously injure or kill others, suggesting who to target.

“This case should serve as a warning that if you’re encouraging people to commit acts of terrorism, then we will investigate. Where we find evidence of this, then there are very serious consequences, something that Ruane is now facing.”

Evening Standard