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Bricks, burning arrows, and burglary: Who was involved in the riots and what sentences have they got?

Bricks, burning arrows, and burglary: Who was involved in the riots and what sentences have they got?

Around 90 adults have been sentenced so far for their part in the recent riots which gripped towns and cities in England and Northern Ireland.

Eight of those have received custodial sentences of three years or more, while three-quarters of people have got more than a year of jail time.

The severity of sentences ranges from community orders and fines at the lower end, to the longest term so far of six years for David Wilkinson, 48, for his role in the Hull disorder.

He was a prominent member of the “baying mob” which forced three terrified Romanian men from their car.

John Honey, 25, who went viral online for his looting rampage of Lush, O2 and Shoezone in Hull while wearing an England flag shirt, received four years and eight months behind bars.

There was also a hefty sentence of three years and four months for 44-year-old Gareth Metcalfe, for his involvement in rioting outside a mosque in his hometown of Southport on 30 July.

Metcalfe, who the prosecution describes as having entrenched racist views, was at the forefront of the violence in Southport, and has 21 previous convictions including for racially and religiously aggravated offences.

Who was involved in the rioting?

Fewer than 5% of those sentenced are women, with the majority of offenders (70%) being men aged in their 20s-40s.

Nine adults under the age of 20 have been sentenced.

Among them, the longest jail terms were for 18-year-old Kenzie Roughley and 19-year-old Drew Jarvis.

Roughley was sentenced to two years and four months for kicking a police van outside an asylum hotel in Rotherham, while Jarvis received a three-year term for hurling bricks and lit arrows at police during the same riot on 4 August.

This only includes sentences of adult offenders who have been named in court. Convicted children under the age of 18 have not been named for legal reasons, including boys as young as 12 years old.

Only five of those sentenced are aged 60 or older.

At 69, the oldest is William Nelson Morgan who has received a sentence of two years and eight months for throwing bricks towards officers and being in possession of a wooden cosh at a riot outside a Southport mosque on 30 July.

Sentences were handed down for 104 offences, as 17 offenders were charged with more than one offence.

Over half (52%) of those were charged with the public order offence of violent disorder, and a further 17% related to charges of affray or other public order offences, including racially aggravated harassment.

One in 10 charges, where sentences were handed down, related to online communications. This includes 53-year-old “keyboard warrior” Julie Sweeney’s 15-month term for publishing material to stir up racial hatred.

She posted on Facebook: “Don’t protect the mosques, blow the mosque up with the adults in it”.

More sentencing to come

As of 15 August, 437 people in England and Wales had been charged with offences relating to the violent unrest and disorder which broke out in the wake of the Southport stabbings at the end of July.

Some 20 additional charges have been made by the CPS in the past 24 hours.

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So far, no one has been sentenced on the more serious charge of ‘rioting’, but two people have been charged with the offence – Kieran Usher of Sunderland and an unnamed 15 year-old boy.

Around 40 people have been arrested and charged with offences related to the disorder in Northern Ireland, including an 11-year-old boy. It is expected that it will take several months before these reach sentencing, however.


The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling, we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.