A teenage rioter has been set free by the Court of Appeal after being locked up over the summer disorder, while three other men failed in their bids to overturn their sentences.
Ozzie Cush, Paul Williams, Dylan Willis and Aminadab Temesgen were all locked up after admitting their parts in the violent unrest in late July and early August in the wake of the Southport stabbings.
At the Court of Appeal, they argued their sentences had been too tough and urged senior judges to reduce their spells behind bars.
Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said on Thursday that tough jail sentences were rightly imposed by judges to help stop the outbreak of violence.
“In the context of widespread and significant public disorder, it’s not only the precise individual act of the offender that matters”, she said.
“It is the fact the offender is taking part in violent disorder, threatening violence against other people and/or property, and is part and parcel of widespread threatening and alarming activity.”
She and two other top judges dismissed the appeals of Cush, Williams, and Temesgen, but agreed to convert the 14-month sentence for 18-year-old Willis into a suspended jail term.
He had endured a “tough” upbringing, the court heard, and he will now carry out 14 days of rehabilitation as part of his suspended jail term.
Baroness Carr said anyone taking part in rioting, especially when disorder is spreading rapidly across the country, should expect “severe sentences”.
She said of the riots: “The violence was fueled by mis-information and far right sentiment, spreading to various towns an cities across the nation.
“Mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers were targeted. Significant damage was caused and injury sustained.
“Those subjected to violence or threatened with violence included police officers whose duty it was to protect the community under attack.
“Many responsible for the violence were quickly identified, arrested, and brought before the courts, where they were swiftly convicted and sentenced.”
She said courts and judges have a duty to fast-track hearings and sentences to set a deterrent to those contemplating taking part in the unrest.
The four jailed men watched on videolink from prisons as their arguments were put forward to the Court of Appeal, as they claimed they had faced “harsh” and “manifestly excessive” jail terms.
Alex Granville, for Cush, said there was “significant mitigation for each appellant and significant circumstances”, which may not have been properly considered.
He later told the court that an immediate prison sentence is not the only way to deter potential offenders.
The barrister continued: “Suspended sentences hanging over a defendant’s head, while subject to other forms of punitive work can act as a deterrent but can also act as rehabilitation.”
Cush, 20, from Reading, was locked up after pleading guilty to assaulting an emergency worker during a protest in central London.
He had been caught on camera sticking his middle finger up at police during disorder in Whitehall on July 31, before kicking one of the officers.
Lord Justice Holroyde said police had issued a dispersal order when Cush came forward to confront police, and on the video “the air of menace and potential for violence is tangible”.
Cush was sentenced at Inner London crown court to 46 weeks in a Young Offender Institution.
Duncan Atkinson KC, for the Crown Prosecution Service, earlier argued the judges had handled the sentencing hearings correct and within their powers.
He said: “It is clear that each of the judges was aware they had to assess the incident and its impact before going on to assess the role of the individual.”
Williams, then 45, was jailed for two years and two months in August after he threw metal fencing and a can of beer at police after goading officers during the rioting in Sunderland on August 2.
The court heard he took off his shirt and squared up to police in what was described as an “orgy of mindless destruction, violence and disorder”.
Willis, 18, from Hartlepool, was handed a 14-month sentence for throwing a brick repeatedly at a Chinese restaurant window until it smashed during disorder in Middlesbrough.
Temesgen, then 19 years old and from Plymouth, was also given a 14-month sentence after throwing bottles at police in August.
He had been sentenced to prison wrongly by the judge, and his sentence was converted on Thursday into a spell in youth detention.
