Man who kicked and punched police protecting asylum seeker hotel is jailed

A 31-year-old man who kicked and punched police during rioting outside a hotel housing asylum seekers has been jailed for two years and eight months.

Footage was shown at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday of Christian Ivermee kicking an officer who had fallen down as he and colleagues were trying to protect the Holiday Inn Express, at Manvers, on August 4.

Ivermee was also captured throwing a large piece of wood at officers with shields.

He was the latest of more than 30 people who have now been jailed following the violence involving around 400 people who targeted the hotel, which was housing 240 asylum seekers.

Some of the mob broke into the building and tried to set it on fire as 64 police officers, three police horses and a police dog were injured.

The court has also heard how hotel staff feared they were going to die as they barricaded themselves into the kitchen using freezers to block the doors.

Sentencing Ivermee on Friday, Judge Sarah Wright described how he goaded officers before throwing a large piece of wood at police and then assaulted them “more than once, including kicking and punching”.

Judge Wright said: “Your actions were particularly violent and you were enthusiastically involved in protracted threats and violence.

“The police officers behaved with immense professionalism in the face of a determined and violent mob.”

She said she had taken into account references which painted a picture of a caring man who looked after his grandmother, and who had never been in trouble with the law before, despite a difficult upbringing.

But the judge said: “The man they’ve described is unrecognisable from the footage that I have seen.”

She said: “You were part of a violent mob and you were playing your part to the full.”

Ivermee, of Chapel Street, Mexborough, South Yorkshire, admitted violent disorder at a previous hearing.