Protesters surrounded a hotel in Merseyside housing asylum seekers, shouting “get them out” as police vehicles were set on fire and officers injured, a court has heard.
A video on social media purporting to show a male asylum seeker asking a 15-year-old local girl for a kiss had created “ill feeling” in Kirkby, Knowsley, in the run-up to the demonstration on 10 February last year, Liverpool crown court heard on Tuesday.
Police investigated the incident but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided there was not enough evidence to charge the man with a criminal offence, the jury was told.
The far-right group English Defence League (EDL) called a protest outside the Suites Hotel, where the asylum seeker had been staying, the prosecution said.
Merseyside police were tipped off about the planned protest the day before, and was told there was also going to be a counter-protest from leftwing demonstrators, the detective in charge of the investigation said.
Five men and three women, all from Merseyside, have gone on trial accused of violent disorder in what the prosecutor, Martyn Walsh, called “very clearly and obviously a serious incident of public disorder”.
Each admits being at the scene but denies “using or threatening unlawful violence”, said Walsh.
Three police officers were injured as items including rocks, fireworks and paving slabs were thrown, with one needing hospital treatment for concussion and “whiplash-like injures”, the court heard.
A police carrier was “totally destroyed” in a fire and a number of other vehicles were smashed, causing £83,686-worth of damage, the jury was told.
One defendant, Cheryl Nicholls, 44, from Kirby, was captured on police video footage outside the hotel shouting “you’ve got 500 dirty bastard nonces in there. I hope your kids are proud of you.”
Nicholls hung her head in the dock as further comments were read to the jury, in which she allegedly shouted: “No one out of that hotel will be going where our kids go” and “no one is allowed at our shops, so you better tell them”.
Wash told the jury that when she was interviewed by police, she insisted she “went for a peaceful protest as she had concerns about a social media video she had seen”.
Detective constable David Williams, the officer in charge of the investigation, told the jury that in the run-up to the incident, “a 15-year-old schoolgirl was on her way home from school and she spoke with a person who was an asylum seeker from the hotel. There was allegations made to the police that this person, this asylum seeker, had acted inappropriately with her and had asked her for her phone number and asked for a kiss.”
He added: “It was investigated and unfortunately a decision was made via the CPS that no crime had been committed at that point.”
A video filmed by the girl was posted on social media, he told the jury.
Judge Dennis Watson asked the officer: “Are we to understand that there was ill feeling in the locality, the video having been posted?” The officer agreed.
In a transcript, the jury was told that another woman, Nicola Elliott, 52, could be heard shouting: “Are ya happy that they’re raping our children, are ya? … The dirty perverts in there.”
According to the transcript, another defendant, Brian McPadden, 61, could be seen on bodyworn camera footage pointing towards the hotel and heard saying: “We protect our own, youse are not from Kirkby, we are. These are twats, the lot of them.”
Footage filmed through an officer’s riot shield showed McPadden, wearing black shorts and a black coat, standing in front of the burning police van.
Walsh said he could be heard saying: “They better not leave that place in the next few days cause they’ll be dead … every Friday we’ll be here, them bastards won’t be… No disrespect, I’ve got five grandkids and I don’t want that, sorry.”
The court was told that Thomas Mills, 47, of Kirkby, was seen standing on top of a police van holding a banner that said: “Let’s shout, get them out.”
Paul Lafferty, 42, of Kirkby, was seen pointing towards police and shouting “you fucking bullies”, the court heard. Jonjo O’Donoghue, 21, of Liverpool city centre, was said to have been seen on footage lighting fireworks and firing them at officers.
Daniel Fulham, 39, of Kirkby, made his way through a police cordon with his Jack Russell dog, the court heard, and was caught on camera waving the dog at police while shouting “get them out”.
Jennifer Knox, 41, of Kirkby, was said to be part of a group seen confronting police.
The trial continues.
