LONDON — A man who helped fuel a fire outside a hotel housing more than 200 asylum-seekers was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison, the longest punishment handed so far to those involved in last month’s wave of far-right riots in England.
At the sentencing hearing at Sheffield Crown Court in the north of England, painter and decorator Thomas Birley pleaded guilty to the charge of arson with the intent to endanger life at the Holiday Inn Express hotel in nearby Rotherham last month.
Judge Jeremy Richardson told Birley, 27, that his case was “unquestionably” one of the most serious of the dozens he has dealt with in the past month in relation to the rioting outside the hotel on Aug. 4. He said he needed to pass an extended sentence due to Birley’s danger to the public, and ordered that when he is eventually released he should be on license for five years, meaning that if he reoffends he would be liable to go back to prison.
The judge said he was particularly concerned about aspects of a pre-sentence report that said Birley had an interest that “borders the territory, if not crosses it, to a white supremacist mindset.”
Birley, who has previous convictions, including for racially aggravated harassment, admitted arson with intent to endanger life, violent disorder and possession of an offensive weapon at a previous hearing.
Overall, the judge said that like the other outbreaks of violence in England in early August, the case around the attack on the hotel was “suffused with racism.”
The court heard how the masked Birley was involved in many of the worst incidents on that Sunday afternoon, including adding wood to the fire in a bin that had been pushed against an exit, and helping place a further bin on top of the one ablaze.
Birley was also filmed throwing projectiles at the police, squaring up to officers while brandishing a police baton and throwing a large bin that crashed into a line of police with riot shields.
He was the first person to be sentenced for arson with intent to endanger life following the 12 hours of violence outside the hotel that left 64 police officers, three horses and a dog injured.
“You intended that the occupants of the hotel should come to very serious harm and you plainly participated in a brutal attack upon the police who were bravely trying to keep order,” the judge said. “You were a leading participant in an ignorant racist attempt at mob rule.”
In what must have clearly been a terrifying experience for everyone inside the hotel, the judge heard how 22 staff, thinking they were “going to burn to death,” barricaded themselves in a panic room with freezers. The asylum-seekers, many of whom were seen watching the mob from their windows, were unable to leave despite the fire alarms that were ringing.
Eventually, police brought the situation under control and no one in the hotel was injured.
The unrest in England’s towns and cities started after a stabbing rampage at a dance class on July 29 that left three girls dead and many more wounded. False rumors spread online that the suspect in the attack was an asylum-seeker.
Far-right agitators sought to take advantage of the attack by tapping into concerns about the scale of immigration in the U.K., in particular the tens of thousands of migrants arriving in small boats from France across the English Channel.
“What took place in Rotherham that day had nothing whatever to do with legitimate public protest,” the judge said. “It is clear beyond doubt that from first to last the venom of racism infected the entirety of what occurred.”
The violence around the country also saw a library torched, mosques attacked and flares thrown at a statue of wartime leader Winston Churchill.
The rioting fizzled out after days of mayhem following the tough police response and the swift charging and sentencing of those found to be involved.
Since July 29, police have made a total of 1,380 arrests, including of an 11-year-old boy for violent disorder, and together with the Crown Prosecution Service have brought a total number of 863 charges.
Police around the country are continuing with their investigations into the disorder.