UK man sentenced to nine years for arson after far-right riots

Judge says that like the other outbreaks of violence in England in early August, the case was ‘suffused with racism.’

A British man who helped fuel a fire outside a hotel housing more than 200 asylum seekers has been sentenced to nine years in prison, the longest punishment handed down so far to those involved in last month’s wave of far-right riots in the United Kingdom.

At the sentencing at Sheffield Crown Court in northern England on Friday, 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 August 4.

He added that like the other outbreaks of violence in England in early August, the case was “suffused with racism”.

The court heard how the masked Birley was involved in many of the worst incidents on that 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.