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A rioter who went viral after looting a number of shops including a Lush cosmetics store in Hull has received one of the longest sentences after weeks of violent disorder.
John Honey, 25, was pictured wearing a distinctive St George’s Cross T-shirt and carrying boxes of bathbombs when the store was ransacked on 3 August, before also stealing goods from O2 and Shoezone.
As well as participating in the ransacking of the high street, he was part of a “baying mob” that forced three Romanian men from their BMW, leaving them “terrified”.
A court heard the driver of a BMW was left in fear for his life when more than 100 “angry” men descended on him and his two cousins and attempted to drag them from their vehicle during 12 hours of “racist, hate-fuelled mob violence” in the city on August 3.
The man said he was punched in the head, and one person tried to hit him with a metal bar.
In footage of the incident, the three “terrified” occupants of the car could be seen getting out with their hands raised in a gesture of surrender before fleeing to a nearby hotel, the court heard.
Honey had pulled open the passenger door while David Wilkinson, 48, was seen damaging the windscreen of the vehicle.
He has now been jailed for 56 months after previously pleading guilty to violent disorder and three charges of burglary at Lush, the O2 and Shoezone.
Video footage played to the court showed him carrying on of the Lush branded bags and filling it with products, with the manager saying the incident had “massively impacted” the staff.
A previous sentencing hearing that had been due to take place earlier this week was adjourned after it emerged Honey had asked a prison probation officer “if he wanted his autograph because he was famous”.
During Friday’s hearing, the judge was informed that Honey had developmental issues due to a “difficult start to life”.
Judge John Thackray KC told Honey: “I’m not going to hear any evidence about comments which you may or may not have made in the prison setting. I’m not going to give them any relevance. If your defence say that there is now genuine remorse, I’ll accept that submission.”
He also admitted racially aggravated criminal damage over the BMW incident, and to damaging nine other cars during an attack on a garage.
Also jailed on Friday was Wilkinson, who received a six year sentence after playing a “prominent role” in the riots, which saw him spitting, throwing missiles and pushing wheelie bins towards police officers.
In the same garage attack, he was seen trying to set fire to a bin on top of a pile of tyres which were already alight, sending plumes of black smoke into a workshop where a group of people were sheltering.
Four men who took part in a barrage of verbal and physical abuse towards police during the riots were also locked up at the same court.
Also jailed today for two years and two months was Paul Williams, a 45-year-old man who was at the “forefront” of an “orgy of mindless destruction, violence and disorder” in Sunderland.
During the rioting, he was seen throwing metal fencing and a can of beer at police before taking his shirt off and shouting “put your shields down and let’s go, let’s f****** go”.
A mother-of-five who was part of a “terrifying” mob outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Bristol has also been jailed for 26 months after throwing a can and shouting verbal abuse.
Lisa Bishop, 38, was in a “prominent” position outside the Mercure hotel, which left police officers overwhelmed as they struggled to maintain order.
A second riot charge has been brought by police as violent disorder suspects across the country await news on whether they will be accused of the more serious offence.
Northumbria Police said on Friday that Kieran Usher had become their second suspect to be charged with riot, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
The 32-year-old appeared at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court on Friday, where prosecutors said he had acted in an “aggressive manner” towards police officers and threw missiles at them during the unrest.
It followed the force’s announcement that a 15-year-old boy had been charged with the more serious offence after having previously pleaded guilty to violent disorder and burglary on Saturday.
