The first defendant to admit a charge of riot after the recent far-right violence has been jailed.
Kieran Usher, 32, from Sunderland, was jailed at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday for four years and four months after admitting his role in the riots of late July and early August.
Usher, who has learning difficulties, pleaded guilty after he was caught as part of “an orgy of mindless violence and disorder”, the court heard.
He was accused of encouraging “mob violence” during a night of trouble on 2 August in Sunderland.
Prosecutor Michael Bunch said Usher was involved in “encouraging others, beckoning them on, filming their activities”.
Northumbria Police chief constable Vanessa Jardine said officers suffered “serious and sustained” violence with bricks, concrete blocks and scaffolding poles.
Sophie Allinson Howells, defending, said Usher attached “little value to himself” and didn’t hold strong political beliefs.
She said Usher was not linked with the far-right movement, adding: “Tying the Union Jack to himself is best described as an attempt to fit in with a bunch of peers who were there.”
Usher attended a police interview without legal representation and made a full admission to officers, Howells said.
At a previous hearing, Usher became the first defendant in the country to admit a charge of riot following the summer’s violence, before appearing in Newcastle Crown Court today via a video link from HMP Durham.
CCTV evidence showed him wearing a mask and a Union Jack flag, encouraging those around him to throw missiles at the police.
It was a night of violence in which a building was set on fire, businesses were looted, and police protecting a local mosque came under a sustained attack.
In sentencing, Judge Tim Gittins took into account that Usher had made full admissions to police and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
The judge said: “Right-thinking members of the community in which you live were left shocked, distressed and in fear.
“From the outset, you were drinking and using your phone to film. You then draped yourself in a Union flag – your acts while carrying that flag bring shame to it.”
Christopher Atkinson, head of the Complex Casework Unit for CPS North East, said after Usher pleaded guilty last month: “It is clear from the evidence in this case that Usher played an active role in the mob violence that unfolded on the streets of Sunderland.
“The coordinated and unlawful violence carried out by the group in this incident, the severity of which forced police to temporarily retreat from the assault, made a charge of riot wholly appropriate in this case.
“The events of that evening also created immeasurable fear for Sunderland residents, with significant damage caused to local businesses.”
