Seven men have been jailed for violent disorder after their involvement in “racially aggravated” trouble outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Merseyside.
Violence broke out from a large group gathered outside a hotel in the Merseyside town of Knowsley on 10 February last year, with the crowd chanting “get them out”.
Footage shown at Liverpool crown court showed rocks, fireworks and other missiles thrown at the police cordon formed at the scene. The court saw how a police carrier van was damaged and set on fire after the group had stolen riot shields, helmets and personal property.
In his closing remarks, judge Denis Watson KC said the crowd had let a “grotesquely distorted and false narrative” without evidence gain traction – namely that all those housed at the hotel were sex offenders or “Isis rapists” and the police were protecting them.
Watson said Brian McPadden, 61, played a leading role in participating in the violence over several hours – and jailed him for three years and six months.
John Tippler, 59, whom the court heard described as aggressive and confrontational – and was heard on footage saying “there is no black on the union jack send the fuckers back” – was handed a two-year sentence.
Warren Cullen, 21, who was on a community order at the time of the protest, was jailed for 20 months. Liam Jones, 25, who submitted a letter from a health professional describing poor mental health after service in the army, was sentenced to 27 months.
Thomas Mills, who brought a banner urging people to shout to get the hotel occupants out was sentenced to two years and eight months.
Paul Lafferty, 42, was handed the same sentence, while Jonjo O’Donoghue, 21, was sentenced to three years and six months in a young offender institution.
Harry Boynton, 20, was given a 16-month suspended sentence on the condition of 200 hours of unpaid work and a curfew.
Watson acknowledged those sentenced were not organisers or members of the English Defence League but had contributed to “sustained and extremely hostile” mob violence on the night.
He said: “The violence which was directed at asylum seekers was racially aggravated. They are a vulnerable minority group and are entitled to look to the courts for protection.
“In determining the culpability of any one offender it is quite wrong and misleading to look only at what he did in isolation, for in civil disturbances the actions of an individual must be seen in the context of the general disorder to which each contributes, where violence feeds on itself and events gain a momentum of their own. The contribution by weight of numbers is a very significant one.”
