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A man who took part in last week’s Southport riot has been jailed for three years as judges begin handing down sentences that the government hopes will help end days of far-right violence across England.
Derek Drummond, 58, punched a police officer in the face and was part of a crowd that made racist chants outside a mosque in the Merseyside town, where the far right gathered last Tuesday after a mass stabbing the previous day.
At a fast-tracked sentencing hearing on Wednesday, two other men — Liam Riley, 40, and Declan Geiran, 29 — received prison terms of 20 months and 30 months, respectively, for their involvement in violence last week in Liverpool.
Prosecutors said the jail terms for the trio, who appeared together in the dock at the first big sentencing hearing following the unrest that has swept the country, was the “tip of the iceberg”.
The Crown Prosecution Service said its officials were working “flat out” to bring more cases and pledged that many others who take part in riots would be “sent to prison for a long time”.
Government ministers hope tough sentences, which come as police brace for a potential escalation of violence on Wednesday evening, will help dissuade would-be rioters.
Brendan Carville, who represented Riley and Geiran, had called on the judge at Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Andrew Menary KC, to resist the temptation to make them “an example”.
The barrister noted they were “not organisers” of the unrest and neither man even knew what the term “far right” meant.
However, handing down the sentences, Menary said: “Those who deliberately participate in such disorder, causing injury, damage and fear to communities, will inevitably be punished with sentences designed to deter others from similar activity.”
Grief following the killing of three girls at a local dance class had been “effectively hijacked”, and misinformation relating to the incident used as “a pretext for widespread public disorder”, the judge added.
Prosecutor Christopher Taylor told the court that Drummond had been among about 1,000 individuals involved in disorder outside the mosque in Southport, which lasted several hours.
Drummond handed himself in to police and recognised he had been a “fool”. He pleaded guilty to charges of violent disorder and assaulting an emergency worker.
Menary said he had given credit for an early guilty plea, but noted Drummond was present at “a fairly early stage” and took part in the disorder “willingly and enthusiastically”.
Geiran was jailed after he set a police van alight and pleaded guilty to violent disorder and arson, while Riley admitted charges of violent disorder and racially aggravated abusive behaviour, both in Liverpool city centre.
Officials are concerned that far-right action expected on Wednesday will lead to some homes being attacked, as activists plan to target migrant-friendly law offices that are based at residential addresses.
A list of 36 targets, circulated among far-right groups online, includes refugee shelters, immigration centres and law offices that specialise in helping migrants.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the sites will receive additional police protection, and that rioters should expect to be “dealt with within a week”.
Senior district crown prosecutor Jonathan Egan, of CPS Mersey Cheshire, said: “Let today’s result serve as a warning to all those who carry out criminality on our streets — you will always suffer the consequences.”
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