Riot arrests now prime 1,000 with 575 charged as looter swears at choose

More than 1,000 people have now been arrested in connection with this summer’s far-right riots, including a 60-year-old who weeped in court and a lout who assaulted a female police officer.

Among the 575 people who have so far been charged are a Sainsbury’s looter who called a judge a ‘b****’ in court and a man jailed for three years for storming a hotel containing vulnerable asylum seekers.

A man has also appeared in court denying he had an imitation AK-47 rifle during a counter-protest while a rioter who turned up to a demo with a balaclava and a hammer has admitted he made a ‘bad, stupid mistake’.

Courts are again packed with defendants today after far-right yobs took to high streets in towns and cities across the UK following the killings of three young girls in Southport on July 29. The attack was wrongly blamed on a fictitious Islamist migrant, a theory spread through online misinformation.

Violence broke out in cities across England and also in Northern Ireland – and has been followed by a hundreds of charges including for children as young as 12, while those arrested also include a 69-year-old accused of vandalism in Liverpool. 

Now a judge has said prosecutors ‘do need to look’ at charging ringleaders of the violence with the greater offence of rioting, rather than just violent disorder.

Today Glyn Guest, 60, was jailed for two years and eight months after he pulled a police officer to the ground by his shield, during rioting outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham.

Footage of Guest repeatedly approaching a line of outnumbered police, who were protecting the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, was shown at Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday.

The body-worn camera footage shot from behind a female police officer’s riot shield showed Guest being pushed back five times before he grabs the shield of another officer, who is then pulled to the ground to the cheers of the crowd.

The female officer whose footage was played said in an impact statement ‘I was terrified for my safety’ during the disorder outside the hotel, during which more than 50 police were injured and there were attempts to storm and set light to the building.

The officer said ‘it was a horrific incident of mindless thuggery’ and that she had encountered ‘nothing like it before’ in her five and a half years of service.

Chris Aspinall, defending, told the court his client ‘simply has no explanation for his behaviour’.

Mr Aspinall said: ‘He was out walking his dog. He lives about two miles from where this happened.

‘He had no issues prior to the incident with the residents of the hotel. He’s been trouble-free for at least 13 years.’

The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, said the conduct of the ‘mob’ was ‘vile towards the police officers’.

He told Guest: ‘You were part of a violent mob and you were playing your part to the full.’

The court heard that Guest’s nose was broken in the incident, to which Judge Richardson replied: ‘He is the author of his own misfortune.’

He said: ‘The maximum sentence for violent disorder is five years.

‘It is a matter for Parliament to decide whether that is in need of revision, in the light of these recent events. I must pass sentence based upon the law as it is.’

Elsewhere a 49-year-old man who was part of a mob that stormed a hotel in Rotherham has been jailed for three years.

Father-of-three Trevor Lloyd filmed on a phone as the Holiday Inn Express was breached on August 4 before following a group of men in to the building through a smashed-in fire door, a judge was told.

Sheffield Crown Court was shown TikTok footage of the crowd breaking in to the hotel, bringing items including furniture and fire extinguishers outside and then throwing them at a line of police officers holding riot shields who were forced to retreat by the barrage.

The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC – who has already sentenced several people in connection with the Rotherham incident – said this was the ‘worst footage I have seen’.

Judge Richardson told him the hotel residents and staff ‘would have been terrified’ when the mob smashed their way into the hotel building.

The judge said: ‘I have seen the footage of what occurred. It was frightening and alarming even to watch in the court room. It must have been utterly terrifying for those present, including the police officers.’

Richard Adams, defending, said his client had gone to the area to go shopping at the Aldi supermarket next to the hotel but ‘he made the foolish error of deciding to go and have a look’ at the disorder.

Connor Whiteley, 26, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and assaulting an emergency worker after playing a ‘prominent role’ in the ‘racist, hate-fuelled mob violence’ that unfolded in Hull on August 3.

He was jailed on Wednesday as the judge encouraged prosecutors to consider charging offenders who played central roles in the disorder with rioting, which has a maximum sentence of 10 years – double the potential tariff for violent disorder convictions.

Hull Crown Court heard Whiteley was at the front of a group confronting police who were trying to protect a hotel known to house asylum seekers, and was seen charging at officers.

The court heard he kicked the shield of a female police officer, forcing her off her feet and leaving her with a minor injury to her elbow and forearm.

Whiteley was also part of a group that targeted a garage, setting cars alight and shouting threats at staff, who were forced to lock themselves inside. He was jailed for three years.

A man who looted a Sainsbury’s store during violent scenes in Manchester city centre yesterday told a judge to ‘f*** off’ and ‘swivel on that, you b****’.

Kye McGlade, 24, pleaded guilty to charges of violent disorder, theft from a shop, and criminal damage on August 3, at Manchester Magistrates’ Court.

Prosecutor Aqsa Khan told the court that McGlade was part of a group that was ‘kicking shop windows and throwing bottles at police’.

McGlade, who was said to have previous convictions for assaulting emergency workers, also admitted a breach of a conditional discharge.

Remanding him into custody, District Judge Joanne Hirst said the offences were ‘too serious’ to be dealt with by magistrates.

She told him: ‘You have admitted taking part in the shameful disorder that took place in our city recently.

‘You were heavily involved in that in terms of looting alcohol and criminally damaging other people’s property.’

As he was led to the cells, McGlade, of no fixed abode, told the judge to ‘f*** off’, adding: ‘Swivel on that, you b****.’

He will next appear at Manchester Crown Court for sentence next Tuesday.

Elsewhere, Habeeb Khan today pleaded not guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to a charge of possessing an imitation AK-47 with intent to cause ‘members of the EDL’ – the English Defence League – to believe violence would be used against them.

The 49-year-old, from Sparkbrook in Birmingham, also denied sending a communication threatening death or serious harm between August 4 and 6 in a video uploaded to social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Khan, who is being held in custody, was ordered to stand trial on November 18. 

Meanwhile, a balaclava-clad thug who was armed with a hammer before violence erupted in Bolton said he had made a ‘very bad, stupid mistake’.

Mathew Edge, 34, has been jailed for a year for being in possession of an offensive weapon following large scale disorder in the town.

He is thought to be the first offender to be sentenced in a Greater Manchester crown court in connection with the recent public disorder.

Opposing groups goaded each other outside Bolton town hall on August 4, with one set of protestors facing off a rival group of counter-demonstrators.

Bricks and other missiles were launched at police officers trying to keep rival factions apart.

Bolton was one of a number of areas with an ‘increased level of unrest and disorder in reaction to the tragic events in Southport’, Bolton Crown Court heard.

At about 1pm that day, police became aware of a man wearing a balaclava who was part of the crowds outside the town hall, prosecutor Kate Gaskell said.

An officer approached Edge and searched him and he was found to be in possession of a ‘small hammer’ and some cannabis.

Edge told the officer that he had the hammer because he was ‘scared of people stabbing him and his friends’.

Ms Gaskell told the court: ‘He repeatedly apologised, saying it was his own fault and he had got agitated and scared.

‘He further said he wasn’t a racist, his friend had told him to come down and he had made a very bad stupid mistake.’

He had been in the pub earlier, where he had drunk a pint of non-alcoholic Guinness, the court was told.

Edge, who has 18 convictions for 32 offences, was interviewed by police and claimed he had been given the hammer by a friend.

Ms Gaskell said: ‘He denied being aware of what was going on in the town centre that day, thinking it was linked to the football.’

Edge, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon and possessing cannabis.

He was jailed for 12 months by Judge Martin Walsh, the Honorary Recorder of Bolton.

The judge said: ‘Bolton was one of five areas across Greater Manchester which experienced substantial levels of unrest and disorder which had broken out, in an utterly misguided and totally unjustified reaction to the tragic events that had unfolded in Southport some days before.’

He told Edge: ‘Your arrest occurred within the context of a significant incident of public disorder.

‘Many individuals will have attended in order to engage in peaceful demonstration, but a significant number were intent upon seeking confrontation, using violence and causing large scale public disorder.

‘Your presence within the large group that had congregated in the vicinity of the town hall was not accidental or coincidental. You had arrived in Bolton town centre having armed yourself with an offensive weapon, and having consciously made a decision to mask your identity.

‘Although prior to being searched you had not produced the weapon, it is clear that at the very least you anticipated an outbreak of public disorder in which weapons might be used.’

Defending, Alex Beevers said Edge accepted having made a ‘conscious decision to embroil himself in what would inevitably second into hooliganism’.

‘If an example is to be made of him, so be it, he accepts that,’ the barrister added.

In Bristol, Dominic Capaldi, 34, has been jailed for 34 months for violent disorder.

Bristol Crown Court heard Capaldi was captured on police bodycam footage throwing objects towards officers in the city’s Castle Park, including while crowds chanted ‘send them back’.

The ground worker was also seen throwing objects at police who were trying to protect protesters from gaining entry to the Mercure Hotel, which is used to house asylum seekers.

Defending Capaldi, John Stokes told the court: ‘It is very sadly a case of ‘hindsight is a wonderful thing’, he recognises now with retrospect the foolishness of his actions on that day.’

Mr Stokes said Capaldi’s child was turning seven on the day of his sentencing, with the consequences of his client’s offending having a ‘significant’ impact on his family.

Judge Martin Picton jailed Capaldi for 34 months, telling the court: ‘This was the first post-Southport protest in Bristol to turn violent, but it has to be seen in the context of co-ordinated action on the part of extremists to cause violence, and by so doing to generate fear on the part of the community as a whole.’

Daniel Russell, 47, also from Bristol, has been jailed for 32 months after admitting violent disorder.

Bristol Crown Court heard Russell was seen kicking a black man, who may have been part of an anti-racism protest, after the man broke through police lines separating the two groups in Castle Park.

The ground worker was then captured on footage posted on social media kicking out at counter-protesters who were stood in front of the entrance to the Mercure Hotel in Bristol, which is used to house asylum seekers.

Representing Russell, Mark Linehan told the court: ‘Mr Russell is profoundly ashamed of his actions on that day. He apologises to those that had to witness it, those that had to experience it in uniform, and to the community at large.’

Mr Linehan said his client had learning difficulties and sustained a head injury as a child after being accidentally shot in the head by a pellet gun.

Kevin Searle, 40, of Weymouth, has pleaded guilty at Poole Magistrates’ Court to charges of violent disorder and assault by beating of an emergency worker at a protest in Weymouth.

His case has been sent to Bournemouth Crown Court for the next hearing on Thursday, August 15.