A brazen mother-of-five who ran at speed with a burning wheelie bin before attempting to ram it at the police and a former flight attendant who was racially abusive and repeatedly pushed industrial bins at officers were handed prison sentences on a day that saw swathes of far-right rioters hauled before the courts.
Mother-of-five Stacey Vint, 34, was jailed for 20 months at Teesside Crown Court for her part in the ‘unprecedented’ violence witnessed in Middlesbrough town centre on Sunday.
Meanwhile Leanne Hodgson, 43, was jailed for two-and-a-half years for her role in the disorder experienced in Sunderland last Friday.
Both participated in incidents of civil disorder that have swept the country since misinformation spread that a Muslim knifeman was responsible for the tragic murders of three young girls in Southport on 29 July.
Footage shows Vint, with the help of a masked man, pushing a flaming bin into a line of riot police on Linthorpe Road in Middlesbrough during Sunday’s incident, before falling and being hauled backwards along the ground by police officers.
Having been found to be carrying cannabis after her arrest, Vint also admitted using or threatening unlawful violence and possession of a class B drug.
Earlier in the day, Vint had yelled at and abused police officers, and refused to leave the scene after being asked several times.
John Garside, prosecuting at Teesside magistrates court, said: ‘At 4pm on August 4 the defendant was seen pushing a wheelie bin which was on fire into police officers.
‘She fell to the ground and was arrested, providing police with a false name.
‘She had one previous conviction for theft from a dwelling.’
She was denied bail and remanded in custody until her sentencing today.
Hodgson, 43, of Holborn Road, Sunderland, was also caught on camera during the disorder in her home town on August 2.
She can be seen pushing industrial bins towards police, picking up a glass bottle and motioning as if to throw it at officers, and breaking bricks on the ground before throwing them into the crowd to be used as missiles.
Hodgson was also accused of running into an officer and calling another one a ‘f****** black c***’
According to her Facebook profile, Hodgson was previously a flight attendant for Jet2, EasyJet and Ryanair, and currently runs a removals firm in Sunderland, Metro reports.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that when police saw her early in the evening she was ‘clearly under influence of alcohol and shouting abuse at officers’.
Later on, an officer described Hodgson ‘running straight at him and colliding with him’.
He said it was ‘clearly a deliberate act’ and when he looked at her afterwards she was ‘laughing and pointing at him’.
The court heard she also threw an object at a parked police vehicle, smashing the windscreen.
After Hodgson was arrested the next day, police learned she had tried to buy a balaclava from the post office earlier.
In mitigation, the court heard she has ‘mental health difficulties exacerbated by alcohol problems’ and was ‘ashamed of her actions’.
She has six previous convictions for 11 offences, the court was told.
Their convictions came as the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said 483 arrests had been made as of yesterday afternoon, with this number expected to ‘continue to rise significantly’.
The disorder began in the wake of the tragic murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, who were stabbed at a Taylor Swift-themed camp in Southport on 29 July.
Misinformation spread on social media that the assailant was a Muslim.
Accused Axel Rudakubana, 17, was born in Cardiff to parents from Rwanda and has been charged with three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed weapon.
Following the tragedy, far-right activists began targeting mosques and accommodation for asylum seekers.
Following days of disorder, Sir Keir Starmer said swift justice, including sentencing, has been a deterrent to more violent disorder.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister addressed his third emergency Cobra meeting since the first riot in Southport on July 30 and after many planned protests failed to materialise on Wednesday night.
Sir Keir told the meeting that police need to remain on ‘high alert’.
He is understood to have said there was no doubt that levels of policing in the right places and swift justice over the past week, including sentencing, have acted as a deterrent to disorder.
Earlier yesterday, he told reporters that Wednesday night’s events turned out ‘much better than was expected’ and ‘anybody involving themselves in disorder, whatever they claim as their motive, will feel the full force of the law’.
The disturbances began in the aftermath of the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, with far-right activists targeting mosques and asylum accommodation.
The prime minister has described the riots as ‘far-right thuggery’ and promised that those involved will ‘face the full force of the law’.
Others convicted on Friday include Anthony Livesey, 25, who alongside several other men, attacked a pedestrian in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester, in one of the most shocking incidents to have emerged so far from a week of unrest.
Livesey swung a punch during the sickening incident before stamping on the victim’s head after he had been dragged to the ground.
Footage has also emerged of 69-year-old rioter William Morgan shouting ‘I’m English’ and ‘I’m f***ing 70 mate’ as he was arrested for violent disorder in Liverpool on Saturday.
Guy Sullivan, 43, took advantage of unrest in Plymouth to steal £280 of alcohol from a Tesco. He was jailed for 16 months and also admitted violent disorder after stealing a police officer’s baton.
Meanwhile, Jordan Parlour was jailed for 20 months at Leeds Crown Court for publishing Facebook posts encouraging people to attack a hotel in the city housing more than 200 asylum seekers and refugees.