Owen Royden has avoided a jail term
A man hurled missiles and tried to force his way into a Sainsbury’s store as it was looted during rioting in Piccadilly Gardens. Owen Royden, who is homeless, was part of a group that gathered in Manchester city centre on Saturday, August 3 last year.
Part of the ‘very large crowd’ that assembled at around 2.30pm, Royden, 30, was caught on camera ‘throwing a cup to an opposing crowd’, Justin Hayhoe, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court.
Royden was also filmed ‘marching’ down Mosley Street behind a group which was ‘chanting in an offensive and really unpleasant way’. As he approached the Sainsbury’s store on Mosley Street, he ‘pulled his clothing up over his face’ and was part of a group which ‘tried to force their way in’.
A number of people have already been sentenced for looting the store. Royden didn’t enter and ‘gave up relatively quickly’, Mr Hayhoe added. Around 15 minutes later, he was seen throwing an unidentified object towards police as a person was being arrested and removed from the crowd at the bottom of Mosley Street. No one was hit or injured.
At around 4.30pm he was issued with a dispersal notice and ordered to leave the city centre. He was identified from footage and arrested a month later. “He decided to join in widespread disorder which caused considerable cost to the public and stores,” Mr Hayhoe said.
Royden, of no fixed address, admitted violent disorder at an earlier hearing. He has previous convictions including for arson and sexual assault.
Patrick Buckley said Royden had mental health difficulties. “He is well aware of the condition he suffers,” he said. “Whilst we all understand the degree of chaos which is caused by living on the streets.”
The Recorder of Manchester, Judge Nicholas Dean KC, told him: “You are only 30, but you have had a troubled time in the last few years.
“That is in part because of your mental health, in parts because of your use of alcohol and drugs. The violent disorder you have pleaded guilty to occurred at a time when, in this country, there was rioting and violent behaviour being perpetrated in ways far more serious than your participation.
“I don’t know what persuaded you to become involved, but involved you were, albeit in a way that can only accurately be described as peripheral. This combination of behaviour qualifies as amounting to violent disorder. But I have dealt with, probably, hundreds of cases of violent disorder and this is a case which falls at the very bottom end of the spectrum of seriousness of such offending.”
He said Royden had ‘got carried away with what others were doing.’ “You’re clearly a vulnerable man, in part because of your mental health, in part because of your addictions, and in part because of your homelessness,” he added.
Judge Dean said it was ‘fortunate’ he didn’t enter Sainsbury’s as ‘if you had involved yourself in looting a shop, I would have had no choice but to send you to prison.’
He imposed a 12 month community order with a nine month alcohol treatment requirement and 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days. “The elements of the sentence won’t solve your problems, but may help you solve them” Judge Dean said.
“You need to turn a corner and help yourself or else you’re likely to find yourself before the courts again and again, and that just means the likelihood of prison,” he added.
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