A teenager has been jailed after admitting robbery during the Hull riots on 3 August.
Thomas Cowap, 19, was sent to a young offender institution for 18 months.
He pleaded guilty to the offence at a hearing in September at Hull Magistrates’ Court.
Cowap, of Thanet Road in Hull, was sentenced at the city’s crown court on Friday.
A new mother who threw a stone at police during riots has been jailed for a year.
Tamsyn Cerr, 21, was also seen on footage handing missiles to a man to hurl at officers in Hartlepool during the 31 July disorder, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Cerr, who admitted violent disorder, missed the first birthday of her first child as she had been held on remand after the violence, the court was told.
Cleveland Police Chief Constable Mark Webster said the level of hatred and aggression shown to police that night in the town was “unprecedented”.
Prosecutor Rachel Masters said anti-immigration protests turned violent in the town during a wave of similar outbreaks of disorder across the country.
Video showed Cerr, of Firby Close in Hartlepool, hurling a stone at officers and then passing one to a man to throw.
In mitigation, Calum McNicholas said she had acted on impulse and had been punished already by missing the first birthday of her child due to her incarceration.
Judge Grancis Laird KC said it was not “impulsive” as Cerr made a number of decisions, namely to go to the scene and get involved in the violence.
He said the disorder had had a “devastating impact” on the community and placed a “considerable strain” on police.
But he said Cerr had “powerful personal mitigation” including her young age, immaturity, a disability and being the mother of a young child so her jail term was reduced compared to other offenders.
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A knifeman smashed a window at a rival’s home and warned “I will cut your head off”.
A person inside the house targeted by Kieron Wright, in Sunderland, was “visibly shaken” when officers arrived on April 25.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the confrontation was caught on CCTV and Wright, who had left the scene, was arrested nearby.
Wright, 31, of Buttermere Street, Sunderland, who has 95 offences on his record and was out on licence at the time, admitted having a bladed article and criminal damage.
Mr Recorder Jamie Hill KC said it remains unclear why Wright targeted the house but there was suggestion of a previous fall-out involving a family member and that money was involved.
Recorder Hill sentenced Wright, who has been in custody since the offence, to 12 months, suspended for two years, with rehabilitation and programme requirements.
Christopher Morrison, defending, said Wright has a troubled background but is now at a “pivotal point” in his life and is making positive changes.
Mr Morrison told the court: “He has started to demonstrate some insight.”
Lukas Allen threw bricks at officers, destroyed a garden wall and then broke into a shop in Southport
The longest prison sentence so far for Merseyside disorder has been handed to a man from Litherland after he was jailed today. Lukas Allen, 23, of Kirkstone Road North, in Litherland, threw bricks at officers, destroyed a garden wall and then broke into a shop in Southport.
Violence originally broke out in Southport on July 30 when hundreds of people clashed with police following the deaths of three young girls – Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King and Alice Da Silva Aguiar – in a mass stabbing the previous day.
Allen pleaded guilty to violent disorder, burglary and possession of a controlled Class A drug and was sentenced to four years and two months in jail today, Friday October 11, at Liverpool Crown Court. Allen could be identified on footage as being heavily involved in the appalling scenes in Southport on Tuesday, July 30.
Officers were able to prove that Allen hurled missiles at officers and then helped kick down a nearby garden wall in order to get more bricks to throw. Footage later shows him breaking into a shop, which caused significant damage to the front and inside of the store. A number of people entered the shop and CCTV shows Allen climbing over the counter and taking various items from the shelves.
Detective Chief Inspector Tony Roberts said: “The actions of Allen were absolutely disgraceful and there is no room in society for such violence and abhorrent behaviour. Allen not only hurled bricks at officers, but also caused significant harm and fear for the residents and business owners who live in Southport.
“The mindless actions of those involved is perfectly demonstrated by Allen and others destroying a garden wall and causing damage and stealing from a local business. The community were then left to pick up the pieces once the violent mob left the area. I think it’s right that Allen has received a significant sentencing and I sincerely hope that he reflects on his appalling actions while he’s in prison.”
The total number of arrests for violent disorder in Merseyside now stands at 126 people, with 88 charged and 67 people sentenced to a combined 145 years and two months. We would encourage anyone with information to contact us via Public Portal (mipp.police.uk) or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Homeless former chef Aaron Johnson, 33, launched a vile misinformed rant to 30,000 viewers
A YouTuber has been jailed for stirring up racial hatred after live streaming a vile foul-mouthed rant outside a hotel housing asylum seekers.
Aaron Johnson, 33, a homeless former chef, broadcast himself on an increasingly angry 25-minute tirade from outside the hotel in Stockport to an audience which swelled to more than 30,000 viewers during the widespread disorder which followed the deaths of three children in Southport.
After he had been to the pub and had seen misinformation on Twitter suggesting migrants had been throwing ‘s**t’ and bricks at passing motorists, Johnson decided to go the hotel and broadcast live from his YouTube channel, The Looking Glass.
Today (Thursday, October 10), Johnson, of Criterion Street in north Reddish, Stockport, appeared at Minshull Street Crown Court to be sentenced after he admitted a single public order offence, namely that he distributing a recording intending to stir up racial hatred.
Broadcasting from a mobile phone, Johnson filmed from the outside of the hotel through the front entrance and he even filmed inside bedrooms, showing asylum seekers inside. During a foul-mouthed tirade, he wrongly claimed that migrants being housed there had thrown ‘s**t’ and bricks at passing cars and called one person who came to speak to him a terrorist.
He identified the location of the hotel in Offerton and claimed the country had descended into ‘civil war’. Prosecutor Angus MacDonald told the court the ‘background’ was the incident Southport, prompting ‘several incidents of violent disorder’ across the country which was ‘focused on asylum seekers and other racial groups’.
He said staff from the hotel in Stockport called police after someone – the defendant – had been trying to film asylum seekers through their bedroom window. Mr MacDonald said the clip – now removed from YouTube but played in court – captured the defendant’s conduct.
During the video, Johnson filmed staff inside the entrance and migrants through their bedroom windows. He could be heard saying he was ‘sick of it’ and ‘these are all migrants’.
He appeared to tell one migrant: “Hello, are you enjoying the free food and free f***ing accommodation yeah?” Later, he said: “These people get put f***ing first.” The footage captured him filming a Union Jack outside front of the hotel and saying: “That’s a f***ing insult. And you wonder why people are p**d off. It’s disgusting… it’s a f***ing insult.”
When people from the hotel came to speak to him, he launched a tirade at them, challenging them to call the police. He is captured criticising Palestinians with ‘dish clothes on their heads’. He is heard to reference Palestine and Hamas and he criticised those present as ‘terrorist supporting scumbags’.
Despite being unemployed at the time, he was heard to say: “I’m a taxpayer. I pay for this. I’ll do what the f*** I want.” He added: “I’m sick to death of this country. I’m sick of it. It’s civil war. Wake up d***heads.” When police finally arrived, he told officers he had ‘had enough’ before he was arrested.
One member of staff, in a victim personal statement referenced in court, said the incident had left him ‘feeling sad’ and that the migrants being housed there at the time ‘didn’t deserve this treatment from him’. Another said they ‘felt threatened’ and thought Johnson was about to attack them.
Alexander Bennie, defending, said his client, who had one previous conviction for throwing a missile at a football match, had worked as a chef for 17 years but he had lost his job and became homeless following the death of his grandmother in 2018 and the breakdown of a relationship. The court heard he didn’t know his father.
The death had a ‘very significant impact’ on Johnson who was eventually placed on medication for depression, said Mr Bennie, who said the defendant descended into a ‘digital hole’ where he sought content ‘from creators and types you can probably image’.
On the day of the incident, Johnson had been in the pub when he saw on Twitter what turned out to be ‘false information’ that migrants from the hotel had been throwing bricks at people, said Mr Bennie.
Mr Bennie said his client had not intended to ‘stir up violence’ when he went to the hotel and was now ‘extremely remorseful’ and ‘disturbed’ by his own behaviour which he now realised was ‘abhorrent’. The lawyer said his client’s ‘frustrations at the way his life was going was recycled towards’ migrants.
Jailing him for two years, Judge Maurice Greene said the ‘context’ of the incident was the widespread ‘civil disorder’ around the UK following the deaths of the three children in Southport and the ‘reaction from various parts of our society towards other parts of our society’ in which ‘asylum seekers and refugees have been targeted’.
The judge told the defendant his claims in the footage that asylum seekers had been throwing missiles at passing cars were ‘palpably untrue’, adding: “You were abusive and swearing continually and clearly intimidating people in the hotel and people who came out. You called one of them a terrorist.”
Judge Greene said: “I accept it was not your intention to incite serious violence but it was quite clear there was the potential to incite serious violence especially towards refugees and asylum seekers.”
The defendant’s repeated references during his YouTube rant to homelessness was ‘no doubt prompted’ by his own homelessness, said the judge, who described the defendant’s behaviour as ‘appalling’. However, he said he accepted that the defendant was now ‘remorseful’ and that his conduct during the video showed someone who was ‘almost out of control’.
As he was being led away to begin his sentence, Johnson gave a thumbs up sign to one of his supporters in the public who said ‘keep your chin up Aaron’.
Geraint Boyce, 43, of Penrhiw-Fer, Wales was jailed for two years at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court for publishing threatening material.
A 43-year-old man who called on Facebook for mosques to be burned down has been jailed for two years.
Geraint Boyce, of Penrhiw-Fer, Wales, was sentenced at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Thursday over Facebook posts published during the riots earlier this year.
Boyce pleaded guilty to publishing threatening material intended to stir up religious hatred.
The father of three made and shared a series of comments on July 31 including ones that called for mosques to be burned down with “the bastards inside”.
Alex Orndal, prosecuting, told the court the posts had been made following the murder of three children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport and the widespread disruption that followed.
He said the comments were made on a public Facebook profile called “Boyce’s Plumbing”, which the defendant had been logged into on arrest.
Other posts included him saying he was “ready for war” and “time to wake the lion to save our children’s future”.
Mr Orndal said he also shared an AI-generated picture of a “large hulk-like figure” chasing people wearing “Islamic religious clothing”.
On arrest, Boyce asked police if it was “because of the online stuff to do with the riots”.
Mr Orndal said: “It is the Crown’s case that these are not mere idle comments but calls to action.”
He told the judge the police began an investigation into social media posts after they were alerted by Buffy Williams, member of the Senedd for Rhondda.
Nicholas Gedge, appearing for the defence, insisted Boyce was “ashamed of what he did” and that he “wants people to live peacefully together”.
“He held views at the time as a result of what he had seen online, unfortunately.
“He was sympathetic to views that were wrong, which he wholly recognises now.”
Sentencing Boyce, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke, the Recorder of Cardiff, said: “A police officer viewed your account and saw that you had posted threatening material intended to stir up religious hatred.
“Including posting that you were ready for war and adding the comment ‘burn them all down with the bastards inside’ when you shared the image of a mosque.”
She said the posts showed an intention to “incite serious violence”.
The judge added that it was aggravated because it took place during a “particularly sensitive social climate” which she said required an immediate custodial sentence.
A man who joined a violent mob that attacked police in Southport has been jailed after being identified from video footage.
Martin Taylor, 39, was “at the forefront” of the unrest hurling “numerous missiles” at officers on 30 July, Merseyside Police said.
More than 50 officers were injured and hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused
Taylor, of Montgomery Avenue in the town, was sentenced to two years and four months after pleading guilty to violent disorder and possessing cannabis.
‘Despicable’
The riots followed the deaths of Bebe King, six; Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven; and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, after an attacker entered a dance studio in Hart Street.
Following misinformation spread online about the suspect, crowds gathered on St Luke’s Road and began attacking a line of Merseyside Police officers deployed to protect a mosque.
Det Ch Insp Tony Roberts called Taylor’s behaviour “despicable”.
“Like many others, Taylor tried to hide his identity by concealing his face,” he said.
“But thanks to officers who trawled many hours of CCTV and social media footage, his efforts were in vain.”
Two men have been sentenced for their involvement in a violent city centre incident.
The pair appeared in court after hundreds of far-right protesters and a counter group gathered for demonstrations near Castle Park in Bristol on 3 August.
Benjamin Tavener, 35, of Charfield, was handed a 16 months prison sentence after footage showed him throwing an object and throwing a punch at a police horse.
Kieran Leach, 21, of Keynsham, was jailed for 20 months after acting aggressively towards police officers, assaulting a cyclist and throwing punches outside the Mercure Hotel.
A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named because of his age, was also handed a nine-month intensive referral order at Bristol Youth Court.
Detective Chief Inspector Tom Herbert said: “More than 30 people have now been sentenced for their part in the shocking scenes of disorder in Bristol that day.
“We have made it absolutely clear that those responsible would be identified and arrested and that’s what we continue to do with 52 people having been arrested and 43 of those having been charged.”
Avon and Somerset Police said they continue to appeal for the public’s help to identify a number of people as part of the investigation into the disorder on 3 August.
Teesside Crown Court heard Jamie Govan ‘had fallen victim to malign influences online’
A rioter who screamed and swore at a line of riot police and ignored their repeated demands for him to move away has been jailed.
Jamie Govan, 26, was caught on police bodycam footage shouting at the police on Linthorpe Road during the Middlesbrough riots: “You’re protecting them whilst they rape little kids.” Govan told his barrister he went to the riots on August 4 because he was “unhappy about people arriving in our country on small boats.”
Teesside Crown Court has heard that Govan hid his face with a balaclava, but was easily identifiable because of the distinctive yellow and black top he wore, as he approached a line of police who were blocking protestors from spreading onto Clarendon Road.
Govan, of Hartington Road in Stockton, pleaded guilty to violent disorder, before he was due to stand trial. He has no previous convictions.
On Monday afternoon, Govan’s barrister Matthew Moore-Taylor said that he had attended the protest “…through naivety; he had fallen victim to malign influences online. He was subject to misinformation about those who arrive on small boats. The only way he could express his opinions was to attend that march.”
Govan was captured swearing at the police and struggling with officers as they arrested him. Mr Moore-Taylor said that Govan’s attendence at the Middlesbrough riots was “politically motivated- not racially motivated.”
Govan’s barrister said that inmates at Durham prison chant “EDL” at him and that he has been “tarred as a racist.” The court heard that Govan is now trying to address his drinking and that he is in a “fragile mental state” whilst he is being held on remand.
Judge Laird told Govan that he accepted that, “you were not racially motivated, that your attendance was prompted by an ideological objection to illegal migration.”
Handing Govan an 18-month prison sentence, the judge told said: “You were aggressive, but you did not strike anyone or throw missiles. You repeatedly approached police lines and shouted and swore.
“You were repeatedly told to move back. Your behaviour was so aggressive you were arrested, and you struggled violently.” Govan will serve 40% of his sentence, before he is released on licence.
Laurence Dunkerley, 37, was jailed for 25 months
A man was driving past a baying mob outside a hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers when he parked up, grabbed a bottle of beer and joined them.
Laurence Dunkerley, 37, was captured on body-worn footage in a neon green t-shirt whilst swigging from the bottle. He and a group of males and youths were loitering in the middle of a busy road whilst others were hurling racist abuse towards the hotel and police.
As a bus drove up to the group he stood in front of it before tapping his bottle at the window as it drove past. When the Tactical Aid Unit arrived to move the group on, he became abusive.
Manchester Crown Court heard that there was widespread disorder throughout the country, including Greater Manchester, after false information was spread online as to the attacker of three children who were killed in Southport in July.
As a result, a large group gathered outside the hotel on Oldham Road in Newton Heath, some of whom were wearing balaclavas. Initially, the gathering appeared peaceful but police were later deployed at around 6pm as it turned violent.
Missiles were thrown towards the hotel as well as racist chants of ‘Go home’, towards those inside the hotel. At one stage as residents returned to the hotel, water was thrown at them, the court heard. A bus was also attacked during the chaos.
“As for the defendant, he attended wearing a bright neon-coloured top,” prosecutor Kate Gaskell said.
“He was first seen leaning into a car, then taking something from the car. He then appears to stand in front of a yellow bus and use his beer bottle to tap the side window before it drops to the floor.”
When the police arrived they tried to move the group on, but Dunkerley could be seen to be abusive towards officers.
He was said to have five previous convictions for eight offences including for battery and criminal damage.
Michelle Brown, mitigating for Dunkerley, said he was diagnosed with psychosis following the death of his brother in 2016. She said he had been doing voluntary work to address his mental health issues since.
Of the offence, she said: “This appears to be a misguided attendance. He appears to wander on the outskirts, perhaps aimlessly.
“He was driving past and parked directly in front of the police. This is not a brazen attempt by him and he is not persistent. In his own words, this was a stupid mistake and out of character for him. He is embarrassed and wishes to move on from this.”
Sentencing, Judge John Potter said: “You attended the disorder knowing or believing it had been arranged. It was a deliberate act by you to attend and remain there.
“You and others were told to move on but you were obstructive and aggressive when they were simply trying to protect the public. I accept you did not directly cause damage or use violence towards another, but you did behave aggressively towards the police and tried to encourage others you were with and were part of a mob who did act violently.”
Dunkerley, of Marlborough Drive, was jailed for 25 months. He will serve half the term in prison before he will be released on licence.
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