The mother of a 12-year-old rioter who flew to Ibiza when her son was due to be sentenced for violent disorder has been ordered to pay compensation to his victims.
The boy, who cannot be named because of his age, told the court “I want to say sorry” as he was given a referral order with intensive supervision.
His mother, who was on holiday in Ibiza last week when her son was due for sentencing, said: “It wasn’t put to me how much I actually needed to be there,” and that she had thought the boy, who was accompanied by his uncle on the day, would be allowed to attend with another appropriate adult.
The woman, who appeared at Manchester magistrates court alongside her son, told Judge Hirst her holiday had cost £1,000. After an hour-long hearing, the judge ordered the mother to take part in a six-month parenting course and pay compensation of £1,200, telling her: “You know it’s approximately the same cost as your holiday to Ibiza.”
The court was told the boy was involved in two separate incidents of disorder in Manchester city centre, on 31 July and 3 August. The magistrates court, sitting as a youth court, heard that in the first incident, the boy was involved with a group who were targeting a Holiday Inn hotel housing asylum seekers. The boy had ridden his bike in front of a bus, causing it to stop.
The bus had then been set upon by the mob, who smashed a window and assaulted the driver, who later had to seek treatment at a hospital. In a victim impact statement read to the court, the driver said: “It has left me scared to deal with members of the public, because I never imagined an incident like this happening.”
In various pieces of footage played to the court by Hannah Nicholls, prosecuting, the boy was seen riding in front of the bus and later kicking towards it, as well as handing a rock to another person involved in the disorder. An asylum seeker travelling on the bus to the hotel said he had “come to this country to feel safe, but since this incident I do not feel safe any more”.
In the second incident, the boy was filmed as part of a group who stormed a Sainsbury’s supermarket, and was caught on camera knocking over shelves. He was also filmed as part of a mob kicking the window of a vape shop.
Catherine Baird, defending, said the boy did not fully understand what he had been caught up in, telling the court: “This is a child who should not have been there, who got wrapped up in the moment acting recklessly and impulsively.”
She said he had been swept up by the influence of others, many of whom were adults.
The boy, who has a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), told the court that when he was caught up in the disorder he “thought it was funny”, adding: “But now it’s horrible.” He said on Wednesday he was “worried that I might get jailed”.
The boy told the court he did not know what an asylum seeker was, and said: “I wouldn’t know what exactly to say, but I want to say sorry.”
Sentencing the boy to a 12-month referral order, Hirst told him he had been involved in “the worst type of feral behaviour in our country” and if he had been an adult he would be going to jail for up to five years.
She said she accepted the boy did not fully understand what was going on that day, but that he did know that what he was doing was wrong. She told him: “I am going to give you a chance, but please know it is probably the biggest chance you are ever going to get.”
In Birmingham, a 25-year-old man who incited race hate on social media in the week after the Southport stabbings was warned to expect a substantial prison sentence. Ehsan Hussain, from Birmingham, pleaded guilty at the city’s magistrates court to distributing “threatening, abusive or insulting” written material intending to stir up racial hatred between 3 and 6 August.
The court did not hear details of the material shared by Hussain, of South Yardley, who spoke only to confirm his plea and personal details. The prosecutor, Shahzad Imam, told the court that the maximum sentence available for the offence at the crown court was seven years in jail.
“He is apologetic and remorseful for his actions,” Hussain’s defence lawyer, Aftab Zahoor, said.
Committing the case for sentencing at crown court, Judge Murray told Hussain: “My powers of sentencing (a six-month maximum sentence) are clearly and substantially exceeded.”
In East Sussex, a teenager has been warned he faces jail after pleading guilty to shouting religious abuse from the top of a phone box. Max Ritchings, 18, of Haywards Heath, West Sussex, was convicted at Lewes crown court of causing religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress by shouting words aimed at members of the Muslim religion.
The incident took place on Madeira Drive near Brighton Pier on 4 August amid widespread civil unrest in England and Northern Ireland, when Brighton’s Pride weekend was also happening.
Ritchings also pleaded guilty to inciting violence in social media posts that encouraged arson on Muslim religious buildings. Judge Laing KC adjourned the case for sentencing on 18 October, telling him: “Even you must realise how serious the offences are and how seriously they are being viewed by the courts and custody is the likely result.”
