Right-wing thugs planning further rioting should forget about going on summer holidays, one of London’s most senior CPS lawyers warned.
Police are on alert as the football season kick-offs on Friday evening.
Jaswant Narwal, the Chief Crown Prosecutor for London North, said her team is ready deliver swift justice after more than a week of heightened tensions in towns and cities throughout England.
Miss Narwal, who also issued a blunt message to keyboard warriors stirring up racial hatred online, told the Standard: “I would say to anyone, ‘Think twice, don’t do it’.
“You would have seen from cases we have already taken to court the heavy sentences, two or three years.
“So if you thought you’d be going on one of these marches and then go on holiday in a week’s time, you might not be.
“We are delivering justice very quickly and sending out a message.
“Even if you’re a keyboard warrior, in your living room or bedroom hiding behind a screen, the criminal law applies.”
While some will miss holidays because they are behind bars, English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson was pictured relaxing at a £400-a-night resort in Cyprus outside Ayia Napa.
Across the UK, more than 600 people have been arrested and over 150 charged in connection with rioting that followed the fatal stabbings of three young girls in Southport, Merseyside on July 30.
False information spread on social media that the 17-year-old suspect was an asylum seeker leading to anti-immigration rallies.
In London, around 121 people were held after trouble flared during an ‘Enough is Enough’ demonstration outside Downing Street in Whitehall last week.
Police had bottles and cans thrown at them and flares were lit at the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.
Miss Narwal, whose Crown Prosecution Service colleagues are now working through each of those cases, said: “I think it’s really important to understand the role the CPS plays is delivering swift justice.
“Once we get the cases, if there is key evidence, we charge and put them before a judge.
“In court, we will show footage that we have, either from police body-worn or CCTV, because that really helps to demonstrate what took place and the role that individual had, rather than just reading it out. It paints a picture to make it more real.”
Miss Narwal said race hate crimes are soaring in London and even her own staff have been abused on their way to work.
She added: “I’ve been a prosecutor for 35 years and there’s always been hate crime, sadly, even though London is a very diverse city. We do know there has been a surge more recently.
“Since October 7, against the Jewish community, and now we are seeing it against Muslim and Asian communities.
“We know now there are just random people saying vile and racist things. We’ve had members of staff who are getting that on their way to work because they are a person of colour.
“And that’s really sad. People think they have free rein to just abuse somebody in that way. It’s really offensive.”
