Asylum Hotel Rioter Jailed For Nine Years

A man who tried to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers has been jailed for nine years, the joint-longest prison sentence in connection with the UK’s summer of riots.

Levi Fishlock smashed windows and stoked a flaming bin at the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham, during a spate of disorder on 4 August.

Fishlock, 31, of Sheffield Road, Barnsley, initially denied violent disorder and arson with intent to endanger life but later pleaded guilty to the charges.

Jailing him, the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, said: “This is one of the worst cases of its kind stemming from the Rotherham disorder.”

Large-scale disorder saw more than 60 police officers injured as rioters, many armed with weapons, circled the hotel.

During the violence, security staff and people inside the hotel were told by police to hide in bedrooms and lock the doors to protect themselves.

The two-day sentencing hearing at Sheffield Crown Court was told Fishlock had been wearing “a very identifiable” purple T-shirt as he smashed the hotel’s windows by throwing bricks and broken paving slabs.

Fishlock, whose shirt bore the name Bellingham and the number 10 on the back, told arresting officers that throwing missiles and stoking the fire was for a “good cause” despite about 200 asylum seekers plus hotel staff being trapped in the besieged building.

He also used fencing slats and metal poles “as weapons against officers” and was seen “smashing up” an air conditioning unit outside the hotel.

Fishlock also grasped a “sharp-edged object” while making threatening gestures towards those in the hotel as well as setting fire to makeshift barricades, the court heard.

Alisha Kaye, prosecuting, said: “In his pre-sentencing report he stated he just came upon the incident and had no intention to go there deliberately.

“It’s remarkable coincidence that he was wearing an England shirt. He is deliberately tapping his England badge on footage.”

BBC