Aaran Renwick, 34, was captured on camera shouting racist abuse when trouble erupted outside the Holiday Inn in Newton Heath on July 31 this year
A man who joined an angry mob outside a hotel housing asylum seekers to hurl racist abuse during a summer of trouble has escaped prison.
Aaran Renwick, 34, was captured on camera shouting racist abuse when trouble erupted outside the Holiday Inn in Newton Heath on July 31 this year.
He joined the protest which was part of ‘widespread disorder across the country’ related to events in Southport when ‘false information spread online’ about the fatal stabbing of three children, prosecutor Kate Gaskill told Manchester Crown Court today (Monday, November 11).
The hotel was providing ‘counselling and safety’ to asylum seekers at the time but police became aware of a post on Facebook urging people to join a protest there, the court was told.
The protest attracted a ‘large number of people’ some wearing face covering and some who had been drinking, the prosecutor told the court.
When the crowd spotted asylum seekers returning to the hotel, it prompted chants from the crowd of ‘go home – get out of our country’, said Ms Gaskill.
One resident, in a victim impact statement referenced in court, told police the protest had ‘deeply’ affected him. He said he came to the country to be safe but ‘doesn’t feel safe anymore’.
The court heard the defendant, who was wearing dark clothing, was captured on footage of the protest shouting ‘f***ing P***s, P**i b******s’.
The court heard police were left ‘trying to manage’ when there was an ‘escalation’ in violence at the protest.
When police later analysed the phone of one of the protesters, who was sentenced earlier this year, officers found an exchange of messages with ‘Renners’ in which the pair appeared to laugh at attacks on Muslims, said Ms Gaskill.
The prosecutor said the defendant, who had no previous convictions, joined the protest, which included some children, and which was ‘motivated by hostility’ and he caused ‘serious alarm and distress’.
Ellen Shaw, defending, pointed to her client’s early guilty plea and said he was supported by his parents, who were watching from the public gallery. The defendant told probation staff he felt ‘deeply ashamed’.
Judge Patrick Field KC told the defendant: “You were a member of an angry crowd that gathered to protest about asylum seekers who were residing at the hotel… During the course of the incident you shouted what can only be described as racist abuse. Whatever you may think about immigration and immigration into this country or people who come from south Asia, who are a different religion perhaps or have a darker skin that you do, whatever your thoughts about all of that does not justify hurling violent, hurtful abuse of the sort you undoubtedly shouted on that occasion.”
He described the defendant’s language as ‘deeply hurtful and dehumanising’ but went on that he considered Renwick a ‘clearly intelligent man’ and ’emotionally intelligent’, and someone who could achieve some ‘understanding’ of his behaviour and rehabilitation.
Judge Field said although the offence came ‘close the custody threshold’ he was able to impose a community sentence.
Unemployed Renwick, of Derbyshire Road in Newton Heath, was handed a two-year community order after he admitted a single charge of racially aggravated disorderly behaviour intended to cause alarm, harassment of distress. He was also ordered to complete 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days and to undertake 180 hours of unpaid work.
Renwick was also placed on an electronically monitored curfew for the next six weeks, requiring him to be at home between 9pm and 6am every night. He was also ordered to pay £200 towards prosecution costs.
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