A former soldier who served in Kosovo, Bosnia and Northern Ireland has been jailed for two and a half years after admitting confronting police as they tried to protect a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham.
Peter Beard, 43, of Brampton Bierlow, Rotherham, was filmed on police bodyworn cameras at the front of a mob outside the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers on 4 August.
The court heard that Beard’s aggression towards officers came at a critical time in the rioting, after the hotel had been breached, attempts had been made to set fire to the building and outnumbered police were trying to disperse hundreds of people.
Sentencing Beard at Sheffield crown court, the recorder of Sheffield, Judge Richardson KC, said: “Your conduct was shameful, it was disgraceful and in many respects astonishing.
“The reason I say it was astonishing is because for many years you served in the British army and undertook several tours of duty which involved peacekeeping operation. You have been, I’m told, on the receiving end of attacks by those indulging in public disorder in war zones. You know what it is like to be under attack and yet there you were attacking a police officer who was doing his duty.”
Also at Sheffield crown court, Thomas Birley, 27, who threw a wood panel on to a fire outside the same hotel, admitted a charge of arson with intent to endanger life.
The court heard that Birley, of Swinton, Rotherham, was involved in several incidents outside the hotel, including stoking a fire in a bin that was pushed against an exit, throwing items at the police and squaring up to officers while brandishing a police baton.
Richardson told Birley that his offending was unquestionably the most serious of all that he had dealt with in the last fortnight in relation to the rioting that followed the killing of three girls in Southport last month. He said: “The sentence must be of some substance. This is a crime which carries a life sentence. I rule nothing in and rule nothing out.”
The judge said Birley would be sentenced on 6 September and remanded him into custody and ordered that a psychiatric report be prepared.
At Liverpool crown court, Jake Lowther, 20, was sentenced to 18 months in a young offender institution. Lowther, of Banks, near Southport, nodded to his parents as his mother called out “love you” from the public gallery.
The court head that Lowther was seen in video footage in a crowd in Southport, gesticulating towards officers while others threw missiles. Judge Flewitt KC said that at one point Lowther picked up two pieces of brick or stone from a broken wall and threw them towards police officers, with one piece hitting a riot shield.
Also at Liverpool crown court, Luke Moran was jailed for three years after he tried to smash a window of a police van in Southport. The court heard that Moran, 38, had lost his job with a roofing firm since his image had been published after the violence.
Rebecca Smith, prosecuting, said Moran was filmed on bodyworn camera with a large piece of concrete in his hands, smashing the driver-side window of a police van three times as an officer sat inside. In the footage, the officer could be heard telling colleagues over his radio: “I’m going to have to bail, my window’s about to go through.”
Flewitt told the court: “This is as bad a case as I have seen so far. Unsurprisingly, at that stage PC Hayes feared for his life, believing he might be pulled from the carrier and attacked.”
Daniel Carrigan, 41, of Liverpool, was jailed for two years and eight months after admitting violent disorder and criminal damage in Southport. Footage was played to the court showing him throwing items at a police van and kicking the side of the vehicle.
Charles Lander, defending, said Carrigan had taken cocaine on the day of the incident and said his addiction to the drug was “out of control”. The court heard that Carrigan had previously been convicted of a racially aggravated common assault after telling a traffic warden in 2016 that he should “return back to his own country”.
Thomas Whitehead, 53, who was part of a large group that gathered outside a mosque in Southport, was jailed for one year and eight months for violent disorder after being arrested onboard a plane.
At Liverpool crown court, Smith, prosecuting, said Whitehead’s picture was circulated and he was arrested on 13 August at Manchester airport. Whitehead, a gardener, of Southport, told police he had been to the pub when he noticed a large group gathering and went to see what was happening, and he admitted he had been involved in throwing items.
And a manager at a scaffolding firm was jailed for two years and four months after admitting being part of the violent disorder in Southport. Nicholas Sinclair, 38, of Birkdale, was seen in footage from 30 July shouting at police and throwing bricks.
