A rioter who tried to set fire to a hotel used for asylum seekers while wearing a purple England kit during the UK summer riots has been jailed.
Levi Fishlock, at one point tapping the England badge on his shirt, added planks of wood to a wheelie bin fire next to the Holiday Inn Express at Manvers, Rotherham.
Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said the defendant, who was part of a group shouting abuse and racial slurs, was “involved in almost every arena of racist criminal conduct that day”.
Sheffield Crown Court heard how the 31-year-old helped build barricades that were then set on fire, and made threatening gestures with a sharp object towards asylum seekers stuck inside the hotel who were looking out through the windows.
The court was told Fishlock was “very identifiable” by his distinctive purple England football shirt, which had “Bellingham” written on the back.
Fishlock, of Sheffield Road in Barnsley, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and arson with intent to endanger life, as well as possession of an offensive weapon.
Judge Richardson said the case was one of the worst he had dealt with, and jailed Fishlock for nine years, with an extended five-year licence period to follow that.
It is the joint highest sentence given for last summer’s riots, after Thomas Birley, 27, was also jailed for nine years in September.
The court heard that more than 200 asylum seekers were trapped on the upper floors of the hotel as rioters including Fishlock “intended to endanger the lives of many people” by fuelling a fire.
Fishlock was also seen throwing bricks and paving slabs at the hotel windows, destroying fencing around the hotel, and smashing up an air-conditioning unit.
Hotel staff have told the court how they barricaded themselves into a panic room during the rioting, fearing they would die as they smelt the smoke.
The court heard later in the day that Fishlock was part of a group that attacked incoming police vehicles with rocks. At one point he threw a missile towards a police officer’s legs, aiming for the area that was not protected by a riot shield, it was said.
After he was arrested in the days following the riot, Fishlock told officers driving him to the station that he knew why he had been arrested and that it was “for a good cause”.
In mitigation, the court heard that Fishlock, who has a young daughter, had experienced protracted difficulties with anxiety and depression and had a “problematic relationship” with drugs.
The defendant became the second person to be sentenced for arson with intent to endanger life, following the 12 hours of violence in Manvers on 4 August, which left 64 police officers, three horses and a dog injured.
More than 60 men have so far been jailed for their part in the disorder outside the hotel. The court heard how the rioters smashed windows and set light to the bin, which was pushed against a fire door.
Judge Richardson said: “It has been my misfortune, as well as my duty, to have sentenced most of the cases arising from the public disorder in Rotherham. Your conduct, and the conduct of that mob, has cast a dark and ugly stain across the reputation of Rotherham and South Yorkshire.”
He continued: “You did not start the fire, but you added to it and helped fuel the flames. That is as serious as starting it.”
