Man who targeted asylum hotel receives longest UK riot sentence

LONDON: A UK judge on Friday handed out the longest sentence associated with recent anti-immigration riots to a man who added fuel to a burning bin blocking an exit of a hotel housing asylum seekers.

Painter and decorator Thomas Birley was jailed for nine years for his role in violence outside the Holiday Inn Express hotel near Rotherham, northern England, on August 4. Judge Jeremy Richardson at Sheffield Crown Court told Birley, 27, that his case was “unquestionably” one of the most serious concerning the Rotherham riot.

Birley was filmed adding wood to a burning industrial bin that had been pushed against an exit, and helped stack another one on top, leading to him being sentenced for arson with intent to endanger life.