Father-of-three jailed for Southport police van attack

A father-of-three who left a police officer fearing for their life as he tried to smash a van window has been jailed for three years.

Luke Moran, from Birkdale, was one of five people sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday for their part in violent disorder in Southport.

Describing the 38-year-old's attack with a lump of concrete, a judge said it was "as bad a case as I have seen so far".

The latest group of defendants to appear in court on Wednesday also included men accused or convicted of unrest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham, south Yorkshire.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, at least 497 people have so far been charged in relation to the weeks-long unrest that broke out in England and Northern Ireland following a stabbing attack in Southport that left three young girls dead and 10 others injured, including eight children.

Liverpool Crown Court was shown police body camera footage that showed Moran hitting the vehicle's window three times with the piece of concrete.

Judge Neil Flewitt said that a police officer in the vehicle "feared for his life, believing he might be pulled from the carrier and attacked".

A statement from a police officer said the men who attacked his van were "whipped into a frenzy".

The officer's body cam footage captured the roofer's face as he attacked the police van. Its driver is clearly heard saying "we're going to have to bail" as the footage ends.

The court was told the driver then escaped out of the rear of the van, covered by other officers as he fled.

Nicholas Sinclair, 38, was also sentenced to two years and four months for his involvement in the rioting.

The manager of a scaffolding firm from Birkdale admitted throwing bricks and pleaded guilty to violent disorder as a result.

Two other men were sentenced at the same time.

Daniel Carrigan, 41, of Liverpool, admitted to throwing two items at the window of the police van. He said he was struggling with cocaine addiction and had been on the drug at the time.

He was jailed for two years and eight months.

Thomas Whitehead, 53, of Southport, who worked as a gardener, was given a year and eight months for throwing an object during the violent disorder.

The court was told he "does not know what took hold of him when he threw that one missile from the back of the group".

All the men were told they would be made to serve at least half of their sentences.

Earlier, a 20-year-old from Banks in Southport, who admitted throwing concrete during the riots, was given a prison sentence of eighteen months in a young offenders' institution.

Jake Lowther was captured on CCTV taking part in the violent disorder and was told by the judge he would spend half of his sentence in prison and half in the community.

It was accepted in sentencing that his actions were out of character and his defence conceded their client "did something extremely foolish".

Jake Lowther's parents were in the public gallery and as he was taken away. His mother tried to offer comfort by saying "love you, it's ok".

Those in court on Wednesday in relation to the unrest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham included a former soldier and a man whose actions the judge branded the “most serious” he had dealt with in relation to the violence.

The violent gathering outside the Holiday Inn Express, in Manvers, on 4 August left 58 police officers, three police horses and a police dog injured, as groups attempted to storm the building and set it on fire.

A 27-year-old man who threw a wood panel onto a fire outside the hotel admitted a charge of arson with intent to endanger life.

Thomas Birley was told by a judge that his offending was "unquestionably" the most serious of all those he has dealt with in the last fortnight in relation to the rioting outside the hotel.

Birley, of Rowms Lane, Swinton, Rotherham, also admitted violent disorder and possession of an offensive weapon. He will be sentenced on 6 September.

Ex-soldier Peter Beard, 43, of Brampton Bierlow, Rotherham, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting to pushing aggressively on a line of officers.

The father-of-three, who undertook tours of duty in Kosovo, Bosnia and Northern Ireland, was told by Judge Jeremy Richardson KC: "Your conduct was shameful, it was disgraceful and, in many respects, astonishing."

Passing sentence at Sheffield Crown Court, the judge heard how Beard served in the Royal Green Jackets between 1998 and 2003, and said he was surprised that Beard had become involved as he had been "on the receiving end" of public order incidents as a peacekeeper.

Meanwhile, authorities in Pakistan have arrested a man on suspicion of cyber terrorism, in relation to disinformation thought to have fuelled UK unrest.

Police told the BBC that Farhan Asif was linked to a website which gave a false name for the suspected Southport attacker and suggested he was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK on a small boat.

The article, published on the website Channel3Now in the hours after the attack, was widely quoted in viral posts on social media.