Two fathers at the forefront of an attack on a hotel housing asylum seekers set a ‘dreadful example’ to their children and should think about what they have thrown away, a judge said.
Plumbing engineer Mason Lowe, 28, and trainee barber Morgan Heeley, 26, – both fathers to two children and from Yorkshire – joined in mob violence during an attack on a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham on August 4.
During a 12-hour spate of violence on the hotel housing asylum seekers in early August, Lowe, wearing a camouflage mask, propped up a large sheet of chipboard against the fire door preventing people inside from deploying a fire extinguisher.
Meanwhile Heeley, who would welcome his second child just a few days later, shoved a female police officer, smashed a large hotel window, tried to set fire to hotel curtains, opened a door on a police riot van, threw missiles at officers and used a fire extinguisher on police. Some of his actions were caught in CCTV footage.
The trainee barber’s heavily pregnant partner had been shouting at him to come home during the widespread disorder, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
Both men this week admitted arson and violent disorder.
Judge Jeremy Richardson, who has dealt with more than 60 people for their involvement in the Rotherham disorder, said: ‘Since September of last year, I have passed sentence upon many men who were involved in the public disorder at Manvers on August 4 last.
‘Some have been idle wasters, others, including yourselves, have had jobs. Others, including yourselves, have had families. In each of your cases you have young children.
‘What a dreadful example to those children who one day, young though they are now, will read about what you each did on that dreadful day last August.
‘I hope you are both ashamed of what you did.’
The judge said they were facing long sentences and he wanted them to think about what they have ‘thrown away’.
Lowe turned up at the hotel on a quad bike and the car his partner tried to get him to leave in was a Mercedes – ‘the hallmark of affluence’, the judge said.
‘All of that has been thrown away and whilst you are in prison I want you to reflect upon the hardship you have each caused to your partners and the children.
‘They will suffer and I don’t suppose for one moment you gave a thought to any of that when you were indulging in arson and the very serious disorder.’
Joseph Bell, prosecuting, said that around 400 people had joined in the mindless attacks that day, as police officers tried to defend the asylum seekers.
Watching a video of the mob violence, the judge said it was ‘extraordinary’ that someone – not one of the defendants – brought a child along to see the trouble.
Judge Richardson also referred to the bravery of the officers inside the hotel that day who were trying desperately to keep the rioters out.
‘If they had got inside, goodness knows what might have happened,’ he said.
Ian West, for Lowe, said references described him as a ‘brilliant father’.
The judge commented: ‘They had a comfortable life and he has now absolutely sabotaged it.’
Rebecca Tanner, for Heeley, said he had been enjoying his first consistent employment learning how to be a barber.
The judge said: ‘He has thrown away a form of apprenticeship.’
He added that it was ‘beyond comprehension’ that someone who enjoyed spending time with his daughter would not be in a park elsewhere in Rotherham, on what was a nice day.
‘Instead of doing what a reasonable father should do, there he is lobbing missiles at police officers and partaking in arson where many, many people’s lives were in danger,’ Judge Richardson said.
The judge will pass sentence on Monday afternoon.