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A man who was involved in a fire at a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham has been handed one of the longest prison sentences so far in connection with the riots that swept the UK over the summer.
Thomas Birley, 27, from Swinton near Rotherham, was sentenced to nine years in jail by Sheffield Crown Court on Friday. He had pleaded guilty to arson with intent to endanger life, as well as one count of violent disorder, and possession of an offensive weapon.
He is one of dozens to receive prison sentences in recent weeks after a national wave of far-right riots.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Jeremy Richardson said it was “one of the worst cases of arson with intent to endanger life that has come before the courts in its time”. Richardson gave Birley an extended sentence of 14 years, nine of which are to be served in prison.
Extended sentences are used where a defendant is considered dangerous and an extended monitoring period is needed.
Birley’s sentence comes as a group of some of the most senior former judges in England and Wales called on the government to reverse a more than 40-year trend of imposing longer sentences in order to help alleviate the UK’s prisons capacity crisis.
In a paper published on Friday, four former lord chief justices and a former head of criminal justice said overcrowding had rendered prisons “not fit for purpose”, and called for a wholesale review of sentencing policy. The proposals include accelerated routes out of custody for people already serving lengthy jail time.
Despite overcrowded prisons, a significant number of prison sentences have been handed out to those involved in the recent disorder, with fast-tracked hearings that saw the first rioters sentenced within days of being arrested.
Judges have made clear that crimes taking place in the context of serious public disorder are deemed to be substantially more serious than if they had occurred in isolation, an approach that stems from a ruling in the wake of the 2011 riots.
The National Police Chiefs Council last week said that forces had made 1,280 arrests since July 29 and had “identified hundreds more suspects” in connection with the wave of violence. The riots followed an attack in Southport, which saw three young girls killed and eight others wounded at a dance class.
Police and the Crown Prosecution Service had together brought 796 charges so far, the council added.
