By GB News (World News) | Created at 2024-12-12 11:54:47 | Updated at 2024-12-12 14:25:51
2 hours ago
A violent rioter who helped fuel a fire outside a hotel housing asylum seekers has been jailed for nine years.
It is the joint-highest sentence passed down so far following the nationwide disorder over the Summer.
Levi Fishlock, 31, was a prominent figure in the disorder outside the Holiday Inn Express at Manvers, Rotherham, with a judge saying he "played a part in almost every aspect of the racist mob violence on that terrible day in August."
Fishlock, of Sheffield Road, Barnsley, pleaded guilty at Sheffield Crown Court to violent disorder and arson with intent to endanger life.
Levi Fishlock has been jailed following the action
PA/South Yorkshire Police
Damage at the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire
PA
Police officers face protesters during an anti-immigration demonstration outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham
PA
After he was arrested in the days following the riot, Fishlock told officers driving him to the station that he knew why he had been arrested and that it was “for a good cause”.
In mitigation, the court heard Fishlock, who has a young daughter, had protracted difficulties with anxiety and depression, and a "problematic relationship" with drugs.
More than 60 men have so far been jailed for their parts in the disorder outside the hotel. Sheffield Crown Court has heard how more than 200 asylum seekers were trapped in the upper floors as rioters smashed windows and set light to the bin, which was pushed against a fire door.
Hotel staff have told the court how they barricaded themselves into a panic room during the rioting, fearing they would die as they smelt the smoke.
A fire is extinguished by police officers as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express
PA
Judge Richardson said: "It has been my misfortune, as well as my duty, to have sentenced most of the cases arising from the public disorder in Rotherham. This is unquestionably one of the worst of the many cases which have come before this court concerning the events in Rotherham.
"You were involved in almost every arena of racist criminal conduct that day. Your conduct, and the conduct of that mob, has cast a dark and ugly stain across the reputation of Rotherham and South Yorkshire."
He went on to say: “You did not start the fire but you added to it and helped fuel the flames. That is as serious as starting it.”
