A man is sentenced to 9 years in prison for arson following far-right riots in northern England
The Peninsula
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 pun...
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.
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 added that like the other outbreaks of violence in England in early August, the case was "suffused with racism.” He said he had considered a life sentence.
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.
