Arsonist who stoked bin fire at asylum seeker hotel jailed

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Arsonist who stoked bin ***** at asylum seeker hotel jailed

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==South Yorkshire Police

Thomas Birley previously admitted violent disorder, arson with intent to endanger life and having an offensive *******

A man who stoked a ***** outside a hotel housing more than 200 asylum seekers has been jailed for nine years – the longest sentence passed to date after widespread ********* erupted across the *** last month.

Thomas Birley, 27, was seen piling chipboard onto a burning bin outside the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, South Yorkshire, during rioting on 4 August.

Sheffield Crown Court heard those inside feared they were “going to ***** to ******”, while Judge Jeremy Richardson KC described it as “one of the worst of many cases” he had dealt with.

Birley, of Rowms Lane, Swinton, was jailed after he admitted arson with intent to endanger life, violent disorder and possession of an offensive *******, namely a police baton.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Getty Images

Birley was pictured holding a police baton in front of a line of officers

CCTV played to the court showed Birley, dressed in a ****** puffer jacket and a red face covering, abusing officers as large crowds gathered outside the building.

Prosecutor Alisha Kaye said the painter and decorator was then part of the group that smashed the ground floor window of the hotel.

He was also seen putting chipboard onto a ***** that had been started in an industrial-sized waste bin which had been pushed up against a ***** door.

During the ********* 22 staff in the hotel barricaded themselves into the hotel’s panic room while more than 200 asylum seekers were trapped inside the building, despite automated ***** alarms telling them to leave.

Police footage shows Thomas Birley during Rotherham riot

Passing sentence, Judge Richardson said: “[This was] nothing to do with legitimate public protest. It was mob rule. The venom of racism affected the entirety of what occurred.

“People inside thought they were going to ****. The lives of at least 50 people were endangered. They were all mentally scarred and in peril of being ******* or injured.

“You were encouraged by malicious and ignorant posts on social media.”

Birley was first person connected with the South Yorkshire disorder to plead guilty to the charge of arson with intent to endanger life.

Describing his involvement, Ms Kaye said: “It was persistent, it was sustained, it was widespread acts of ********* to people and property.”

The previous highest sentences were handed out to

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.

David Wilkinson and John Honey were both jailed for six years.

At Sheffield Crown Court, the judge said Birley would serve nine years in prison with a further five years on licence.

He said a pre-sentence report stated that Birley held views which “raised alarm” with the probation officer and there were hints of a “white supremacist mindset”.

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Birley was sentenced to nine years in prison at Sheffield Crown Court

Birley was among a number of people to appear in court on Friday in relation to the ********* which erupted in many towns and cities in early August, with about 250 people having been jailed to date.

At Liverpool Crown Court, Connah Ashley Piggott, 25, from Chester,

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after pleading guilty to violent disorder.

The court heard that Piggott was captured on video repeatedly throwing bricks towards police officers in Southport on 30 July.

At Snaresbrook Crown Court, suspended Labour councillor Ricky Jones

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in connection with comments at a counter-protest.

It was alleged Mr Jones told a crowd in Walthamstow, London, that far-right demonstrators needed to have their throats cut.

Further charges have also continued to be brought by police forces across the country.

In Bristol, Michael Tarling, of Stoke Gifford,

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following clashes between protesters and police on 3 August.

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