Eighteen people involved in a riot that turned a housing estate in Swansea into a “war zone”, leaving families terrorised, police officers injured and a community scarred have been jailed for a combined total of more than 80 years.
Sentencing 17 men and one woman who took part in the disturbance in May 2021, the judge, Paul Thomas KC, said ringleaders had planned to “light up” the Mayhill estate for “mass entertainment” rather than because of discontent.
He said cars were set on fire and one was rolled down a steep hill, on Waun-Wen Road, whipping up crowds who had come out on to the streets. When police arrived at the estate, they were pelted with stones and other objects. Six officers were injured.
The judge told Swansea crown court that residents considered the city generally to be a safe and peaceful place, and the rioters had taken part in the “worst outbreak of mass violence that has occurred here in my lifetime and far beyond”.
He said: “One witness described the scene on Waun-Wen Road as resembling a war zone. It was an episode that has scarred a community deeply.”
Thomas said some families had left and others wanted to leave. “They have uprooted their lives because of the mayhem you unleashed,” he said.
The riot began with a vigil for 19-year-old Ethan Powell. The judge said Powell’s death was “shamelessly and cynically hijacked for the purposes of criminal mischief”. He said: “The riot that ensued was not born of discontent but by a desire for mass entertainment.”
Thomas said the first phase involved obtaining cars – legally and illegally – and setting fire to them. An Astra was rolled down the hill and smashed into the car of a resident, Adam Romain, in front of his house.
“The mob followed it down the hill, exulting in this grossly dangerous act. Anyone could have been hit by it as it went out of control down the hill,” the judge said.
He described how Romain rushed home to try to protect his wife and young children. The mob taunted him and smashed his front door, and front windows were targeted by missiles.
The judge said: “Mr Romain [was] desperately trying in vain to summon the emergency services to save his family, with a car on fire yards away from his front door.”
When police arrived, bottles, stones and bricks were thrown at them. “Such was the intensity and ferocity of the onslaught that the police were forced to retreat, leaving the residents of Mayhill unprotected,” the judge said.
The riot lasted more than two hours. Three cars were set alight. Ten vehicles, half of them police vehicles, were damaged. Three members of the public were struck by missiles.
The judge accepted that the organisers may not have anticipated the scale of the disturbance. But he said: “There was no way of telling or controlling how far it would go.” He said his sentences, which ranged from two years and eight months to six years and nine months, had to deter others.
The family of Ethan Powell, who was found to have died from an “unintentional drug overdose”, condemned the actions of the rioters.
An independent inquiry into the riot found “significant failings” in South Wales police’s response to the riot, prompting the force to make a public apology.
Outside court, Det Insp Gareth Jones said: “The sentences handed out to these individuals reflect the severity of what they did. They joined together, armed with weapons, sticks and bricks and spared no thought for residents or the potentially fatal consequences that could have occurred.”
