Mum with pram and shy balaclava man among latest to appear in court over riots

A young mother pushing a pram and a man who claimed he wore a balaclava because he is an introvert are among the latest defendants to appear in court after widespread rioting across the UK.

Nevey Smith, 21, of West Street, Oldham, will be sentenced in September for violent disorder outside an asylum hotel while she was pushing her child in a stroller.

She previously admitted the offence after she was seen in footage throwing liquid from a bottle towards police officers who were trying to maintain order outside the hotel in Newton Heath, Manchester, on July 31.

Judge Patrick Field KC warned Smith that she could still face jail before releasing her on bail until sentencing at Manchester Crown Court on September 23.

Hundreds of people have so far been charged over unrest that broke out after three girls were stabbed at a holiday club in Southport on July 29, apparently fuelled by false information spread about the alleged killer on social media.

Those who appeared in court on Monday include Tom Sedbury, 29, who brought a bag of knives to an anti-racism demonstration in Walthamstow, east London, on August 7.

In police interview he told officers he had been on his way to a friend’s house when he saw the protest and kept his balaclava on because he did not wish to be caught on camera because he is an introvert.

He admitted five counts of possessing knives as well as obstructing a police officer, and will be sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on October 2.

Mother Kelly Wildego, 41, from Greenwich, south-east London, was given a four-month suspended sentence after she charged at police officers and called them “f****** c****” during a demonstration in Whitehall.

Inner London Crown Court heard that she had thrown foul-mouthed abuse at the police and rushed towards them “without explanation” after most of the violence had subsided at around 8.45pm on July 31.

She was given a suspended sentence for assaulting an emergency worker because she is a full-time carer for her son.

Another Whitehall protester was jailed for 20 months after chanting “You’re not English any more” at police.

David Notley, 67, of Buckhurst Hill, Epping Forest, was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on Monday after pleading guilty to violent disorder and causing religiously aggravated distress.

The court heard Notley made his way to the front of the crowd and confronted police in a “fighting pose”, surging back and forth.

Notley, who was previously jailed for 20 years for drug smuggling in 2009, also joined in the chants “You’re not English any more” and “Who the f*** is Allah?”.

Defending himself, he told the court that he got “swept up” in the demonstration and was not violent towards police officers.

Judge Freya Newbery told him: “You regard yourself as an asset to society, but look at your criminal record.”

Elsewhere, Dean Groenewald, 32, was jailed for 26 months at Newcastle Crown Court for throwing a brick at police after getting “carried away” during riots in Sunderland on August 2.

Mother-of-six Donna Conniff, 40, was sentenced to two years for violent disorder after she also threw a brick and a rock at officers in Murray Street, Hartlepool on July 31.

Conniff, of Alford Court in Hartlepool, Co Durham, was seen handing a brick to a boy and encouraging him to do the same.

Judge Francis Laird KC told her: “Your behaviour and the behaviour of others around you was truly disgraceful.”

Grandmother Amanda Walton, 52, of Ashling Way, Middlesbrough, and her daughter Megan Davison, a 24-year-old mother of two, wept as they appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court accused of violent disorder in Middlesborough.

Walton, who was walking her dog, is accused of throwing a stone at a building and damaging a car wing mirror while it is alleged that Davison jumped on the roof of a car when disorder broke out in Parliament Road on August 4.

They were remanded in custody to appear at Teesside Crown Court on August 29.

Davison’s partner, Jake Wray, 23, who lives with her at Seaton Street, Middlesbrough, appeared in a neighbouring courtroom charged with violent disorder and arson with intent.

Wray is accused of stopping cars to ask if the driver was white or English during the disorder in Middlesbrough, and setting a wheelie bin alight during the trouble in the town centre.

He was also remanded in custody to appear at Teesside Crown Court on August 29.

Two men who took part in an “ignorant mob” attacking a Rotherham hotel housing asylum seekers were also jailed in separate hearings at Sheffield Crown Court.

Niven Matthewman and Nathan Palmer had pleaded guilty to violent disorder over the August 4 unrest and were each sentenced to two years and eight months’ imprisonment.

The court heard on Monday how Matthewman, 19, of Swinton, threw a chair at police and yelled “Yorkshire, Yorkshire” outside the Holiday Inn hotel after it was on fire.

Video footage earlier also showed him draped in an England flag by a police van, which had a police constable, sergeant and police dog inside, being kicked and rocked by others blocking its path.

The court heard how 58 police officers were injured that day, alongside three police dogs and a police horse.

Meanwhile, Palmer, a self-employed home renovator, was said to be on the front line of a large mob which became increasingly violent towards police and the hotel.

The court heard how Palmer, of Hemingfield, was on licence for drug offending when he grabbed a police shield which was then passed around after an officer fell around an embankment.

At Hull Crown Court, William Riley, 64, was jailed for 18 months after punching a police officer and handing out eggs for people to throw during riots in the city.

The court heard the conviction for violent disorder and assaulting an emergency worker was “a massive fall from grace” for Riley, who is involved with veterans’ charities who had attended the city centre that day to lay a wreath for the victims of the Southport stabbing.

In a separate case, father-of-three Stuart Randall, 55, who took a sledgehammer to cars at a garage belonging to a foreign national while the terrified owner cowered inside with his family, was jailed for three years.

Hull Crown Court heard he danced in front of a police line while waving a riot shield and smashed the front windows of two shops during a day of “racist, hate-fuelled mob violence” in the city on August 3.

Randall also smashed the glass of a BMW that had contained three Romanian men who were forced out of their vehicle by an angry mob, although the court heard he was not directly involved in that incident.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of racially aggravated criminal damage, violent disorder, criminal damage to two shops, burglary of the O2 store and Lush, and possession of cannabis.

Three men who threw missiles at police officers outside a mosque in Southport were also jailed on Monday.

David Engleby, 29, of Scarisbrick New Road, Southport, gave a thumbs up to the judge after he was jailed for two years and four months at Liverpool Crown Court for violent disorder.

Self-employed joiner Paul Dryhurst, 33, of Gale Road in Litherland, was sentenced to two years for violent disorder after the court heard he was recognised on footage by a police officer who had gone to school with him.

Luke Summerfield, 33, of Mansfield Street in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, was jailed for two years and two months.

Father of five Thomas Ward, 35, of Colliery Street, Manchester, was jailed for 32 months after waving his penis at female police officers during disorder in Manchester.

He admitted violent disorder and exposure last week at Manchester Magistrates’ Court.

Ward was seen in social media footage stamping on fencing and throwing a plank of wood towards police officers in Piccadilly Gardens in the city centre on August 3.

Ward, appearing via video link from HMP Birmingham, also deliberately targeted female police officers, reaching inside his shorts, taking out his penis and waving it at them, Manchester Crown Court heard on Monday as he was sentenced.