A 15-year-old boy has become the first person to be charged with riot over the recent disorder that swept towns and cities across England.
Almost all those involved have so far been charged with violent disorder, which carries a shorter maximum sentence than the offence of rioting. On Wednesday a judge, the recorder of Hull, suggested that prosecutors should consider the riot charge for people alleged to have played a central role in the disorder.
On Thursday the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that a 15-year-old boy had been charged with riot after disorder in Sunderland. It said more riot charge charges would follow.
The riot charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, whereas for violent disorder the maximum is five years. The boy’s defence lawyer, Chris Wilson, told a hearing that the new charge may have “far wider repercussions”.
Zoe Passfield, the district judge, adjourned his case for two weeks as she said the new charge must have come as a “surprise” to him. She told the teenager: “The prosecution now want to bring a further charge of riot.
“It is an unusual situation when a new charge is brought after the person has pleaded guilty and it opens up complications that I and the lawyers need to consider carefully.”
Wilson said the situation “doesn’t sit comfortably with me, professionally or personally”, adding: “Clearly there are complex issues, and those issues may well have far wider repercussions.”
Gale Gilchrist, the chief crown prosecutor for CPS North East, said: “Following a review of further evidence, the Crown Prosecution Service has today laid a charge of riot in relation to a 15-year-old boy, following disorder that took place in Sunderland on 2 August.
“This is the first such charge to be authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service in the wake of recent unrest.”
Alastair Simpson, an assistant chief constable of Northumbria police, said: “I hope this sends a really strong message that, no matter how old you are, if you took part in the recent appalling events in Sunderland, you will face really serious charges.”
The riot charge, under section 1 of the Public Order Act 1986, came on another busy day in England’s courts. Police have previously said the speed at which defendants’ cases have been processed served as a deterrent to further rioting.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council said on Thursday that 1,127 arrests had been made since the disorder started, and 648 charges laid.
At Manchester crown court a man who punched and kicked a black man in the face was jailed for three years and two months. Joseph Ley, 30, of Stockport, was sentenced for violent disorder and given a two-month sentence, to run concurrently, for possession of an offensive weapon – an extendable baton – that was found at his home.
Philip Hall, prosecuting, said footage obtained by police showed a “black male being confronted by a group of white males” in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre on 3 August.
Hall said the attack was “motivated by racial hatred” and Ley was the “first to instigate physical violence” against the man, punching and kicking him in the face.
Ley was heard on footage saying: “You got a problem with us English, bro?’”
In the footage, members of the crowd can also be heard shouting “kill him” and “stamp on his fucking face”. The judge, John Potter, said Ley’s actions “amounted to nothing more or less than mindless violence inspired by your bigoted and racist views.
“You are a violent racist offender who has access to weapons capable of causing very serious harm.”
Mitigating, Emily Calman said Ley had “thought he was attending an event to celebrate British culture”.
At the same court Oliver Chapman, 23, of Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, who carried out a “spinning kick” against a shop window, was jailed for 20 months.
Another man, Paul Smith, 21, of Manchester, who threw bricks at police outside a Holiday Inn which was housing asylum seekers, was jailed for two years and 10 months.
At Leeds crown court Phil Hoban, 48, a self-styled “paedophile hunter”, was jailed for eight months after admitting racially abusing protesters who gathered for a pro-Palestinian demonstration on 3 August.
The court heard that Hoban was a prominent figure in an anti-immigration demonstration in Leeds city centre where he could be seen shouting at hundreds of rival protesters and leading the chanting.
Hoban is the founder of a group that set up sting operations against men who made contact with fake profiles of teenage girls they set up online. He apologised to the court and said he had been “a stupid, drunken idiot”.
A man who shouted “you’re not fit to wear the badge” at police officers guarding a hotel housing asylum seekers that was being attacked in Rotherham was jailed for two years and eight months at Sheffield crown court.
Michael Whitehead, 27, shouted and chanted to a mob at the Holiday Inn Express on 3 August. Whitehead also chanted “let’s go fucking mental” to the mob.
Ley, Chapman, Smith and Whitehead had all pleaded guilty to violent disorder. Hoban pleaded guilty to racially aggravated harassment.