“let’s see what you’ve cost the country”

Two more men who took part in the violent disorder in Plymouth city centre last week have all been jailed with the sentencing Judge rounding on one of them claiming they were in no position to determine “who should or should not be in this country” having cost the public purse over the years.

John Cann, aged 51 of Patna Place, Plymouth and Ryan Bailey, aged 41 of no fixed abode, Plymouth, both pleaded guilty to violent disorder at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court on Monday and appeared at Plymouth Crown Court this morning where they heard their fate.

Cann and Bailey were first to appear to be sentenced and prosecutor Lewis Aldous noted how Cann had been seen on police video footage on his mobility bike on the north side of Royal Parade, first bending down and picking up an item and throwing it at the counter-protestors. He was then shown later picking up firework and hurling it just before it went off.

He told police during his interview following his arrest that he went into the city with a friend to view the protest, thinking it would “kick off because an immigrant had killed some girls”.

He insisted he held no animosity towards police and that his own nephew was an officer. He confirmed he was on medication, but had also been smoking cannabis. He told police he was not a racist and that he did light the firework with a cigarette he was smoking.

The court was told he had 26 convictions for 170 offences.

Mr Aldous said Bailey had been caught on camera picking up a can and throwing it with the contents spilling out and was heard shouting along with the chants of “refugees not welcome here”. During police interview he initially denied the offence, but later admitted hurling the can, saying that somebody had thrown it at him first.

The court heard Bailey had 24 convictions for 39 offences, including a public order offence and in 2020 was sentenced for two years for a robbery. He also had previous for drugs offences and being drunk and disorderly in 2018.

In mitigation, Bailey and Cann’s advocate Feleens Grosvenor said Cann had a history of “largely non-violent” offences. He insisted he had no alignment with the far right, did not hide his face and was “disgusted with himself” was sorry and had written a letter to police to apologise. He claimed he was injured while having a “peaceful discussion” with an officer and police helped him up when he fell and hit his head.

She noted that he had diagnoses for PTSD and anxiety, suffered a deprived upbringing, was placed in care since the age of six years old and in 1992 fell 95 feet and severely damaged his leg, resulting in him being in a coma for a short while, and the requirement of a prosthetic leg since 2010. She noted he was also a heroin user but had been clean for three-and-a-half years.

Ms Grosvenor said Bailey had apologised for his actions and was ashamed. She said he claimed to not previously been aware of the protests, did not have a long history of violence and had not offended since 2020. On the night he claimed to have been hit by the can and made a “spontaneous decision” to throw it back. She said Bailey had shown genuine remorse, suffered anxiety and depression and was taking medication for both. In addition he had been homeless for a year and was currently being house in a hostel, but would lose the place there if jailed.

Judge Robert Linford reiterated his statements from previous sentencings for the violent disorder, noting the huge disruption and anxiety it caused the city, resulting in the closure of pubs, clubs, shops, a medical centre and the theatre and the costs to the public transports services, health services and emergency services.

Again he said he emphasised that “the word is going to go out from this court that people who behave in this way are going to go to prison and going to go for some considerable time”.

He told Cann he deliberately lit and threw the firework which was an “extremely dangerous thing to do” and he could have hit anyone which would have meant him facing “far more serious charges than these.”

To Bailey he said he was “in the midst of the disorder, chanting along moronically with the other members of this mob”.

He told Cann that during police interview he “spouted the dangerously inaccurate nonsense that was behind these incidents of disorder countrywide” pointing out that he told police during his interview that the protests were about “an immigrant that had killed girls”.

Judge Linford noted that the judge in Liverpool who dealt with the alleged perpetrator of the attacks “took the unusual step of naming him in an attempt to show people that the person in question was not an immigrant – but they [other rioters] and you didn’t really care about that. It was just an excuse to go out and have a go at people with whose views you disagree.”

Judge Robert Linford then rounded on Cann telling him that according to his police interview he discussed with them “about the better use of taxpayers’ money and why people were having to pay to keep these people in this country after committing such heinous crimes.”

Judge Linford then launched a stinging rebuke to Cann saying: “So let’s look at how the taxpayer have been funding your activities over the last 38 years – let’s see what you’ve cost the country: you’ve got 10 aliases, four fictitious birth dates, you’re 51 years of age, you’ve been convicted of 170 offences, you been convicted of theft, arson, taking cars, handling stolen goods, obtaining by deception, burglary, dangerous driving and possessing bladed articles. In all over the years that you’ve been visiting the criminal justice system you’ve received sentences totalling 357 months in prison, many of them concurrent.

“In other words, nearly 30 years. That Mr Cann is what you’ve been costing this country and you sit there in that interview and saw fit to be critical of others. You have no right whatever to say who should or should not be in this country.”

To Bailey, Judge Linford said he had 29 convictions for 39 offences, including theft, criminal damage, possession of drugs, supply of class A drugs, threatening behaviour, breach of a Domestic Violence Protection Order and robbery “and you were chanting with therest of that rabble about immigration”

“You two were in no position to judge anybody”.

Judge Linford accepted the pair had pleaded guilty at the earlier opportunity and handed Cann a three year jail sentence and Bailey a 30 month jail sentence. He said they would serve half before being released on licence.

Plymouth Herald