Sir Keir Starmer is relying on tough measures harking back to the 2011 London riots to try and bring the recent chaos to an end, with suspects named and shamed before reaching court and thugs handed years in jail during televised sentencings.
Police today launched dawn raids targeting ‘seriously violent’ yobs who took part in the shameful violence, with the total number of arrests standing at 483 and climbing rapidly.
A huge court backlog means justice is often dispensed slowly, with suspects waiting an average of 127 days between the alleged offence and a charge, but under an expedited process charges have been laid against 149 riot suspects in a matter of days.
Once they are found guilty, rioters are facing strikingly long jail terms, with Derek Drummond, 58, sentenced yesterday to three years for violent disorder and punching a police officer.
This reflects the precedent set following the unrest in 2011, when convicted rioters were handed approximately two months more than the 13 months received on average by similar offenders at the time, according to the Royal Economic Society.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is relying on tough measures harking back to the 2011 London riots to try and bring the recent chaos to an end
A man is walked to a police van as the Metropolitan Police arrests 10 people this morning following the riots in Whitehall last week
Sir Keir Starmer has said the long sentences are evidence of the ‘swift action’ that authorities are taking against far-right thugs.
One case of alleged terrorism is ‘actively under consideration’ following widespread disorder across the country, the Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson has said.
Ministers are also looking at the prospect of banning thugs from football matches due to a perceived link between far-right groups and football hooligans.
Under The Football Offences Act anyone found committing offences, including using offensive language and physical violence, in the two hours either side of a match can be given a football banning order.
This specific time frame could be extended to cover the riots seen in England over the last week, it is claimed, with one source telling the i: ‘The events of recent days take place against the background of increased football-related disorder we have seen in the last year or so.’
Both the police and courts are responding to the drive to ‘name and shame’ offenders by changing their tactics.
This afternoon, William Nelson Morgan, 69, and gas fitter John O’Malley, 43, were jailed for two years and eight months each in the first televised sentencing of the riots.
Ryan Sheers, 28, and his boyfriend Steven Mailen, 54, were today jailed for two years and two months
Sheers (left) and Mailen (right) seen dancing and shouting at police officers during the disorder
Judges have been able to give permission for their sentencing remarks to be broadcast live since 2022, but typically this is reserved for the most serious cases of murder and attempted murder.
Similarly, some forces are now publishing mugshots of suspects after they have been charged – when typically these are only released after an offender has been sentenced to at least a year in prison.
One major concern is whether Britain’s overcrowded prison system can cope with a sudden surge of new inmates.
Ministers are also overseeing moves to provide an extra 500 prison places, but it remains to be seen whether this will be sufficient.
A new release rule introduced earlier this month means most prisoners will be let out after serving 40% of their sentence to help alleviate overcrowding.
Inmates who have committed serious violent offences with sentences of four years or more will not be applicable, but unless the rules change they would apply to all rioters sentenced so far.
Gas fitter John O’Malley and Britain’s oldest rioter William Nelson Morgan (pictured), 69, were jailed for a total of more than five years today
The Prime Minister announced he would chair another Cobra meeting with law enforcement officials today to ‘reflect on last night’ and plan for the coming days.
Sir Keir will hold the third high-level gathering of its kind in the last week, after threats of further disorder largely failed to materialise yesterday evening.
Police had expected more than 100 events on Wednesday night, with 30 counter-demonstrations planned.
Shops were boarded up in many towns and cities over fears of rioting after a week of violent disorder.
Further violence was largely curtailed, but the Prime Minister insisted it was ‘important that we don’t let up’.
Following a visit to a mosque in Solihull, he told broadcasters: ‘Now it’s important that we don’t let up here and that’s why later on today I will have another Cobra meeting with law enforcement, with senior police officers, to make sure that we reflect on last night but also plan for the coming days.’
Daniel McGuire (pictured), 45, was jailed for 26 months after ‘spitting on officers and shields’ despite being told to stop
Rioters who have already appeared in court
Sir Keir said Wednesday night’s events turned out ‘much better than was expected’, and suggested the additional deployment of police officers and the quick sentencing of people involved in disorder were the reasons riots did not materialise.
‘We were able to demonstrate the criminal justice system working speedily, so yesterday we saw the sentencing of individuals who had been involved in disorder days ago, some of them getting sentences as long as three years.
‘That sent a very powerful message,’ the Prime Minister said.
