Oliver Meir Hulme went on the rampage during the Hanley riots

Teenager Oliver Meir Hulme hurled missiles in the Hanley riots. The 19-year-old was only 17 when he became involved in the trouble.

He threw missiles towards the mosque in Town Road and chucked a brick at a police officer. But he was spared an immediate custodial sentence at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court because of the lengthy delay in his case coming to court, his age and immaturity at the time, and his genuine remorse.

The trouble erupted on August 3, 2024.

Prosecutor Ibrahim Ilyas said: “The defendant was part of a group throwing missiles. At 1.42pm in Town Road he was seen throwing items towards the mosque. At 1.56pm he threw a bottle of water towards police. At 2.01pm he was on a slip-road by Potteries Way and was seen holding a brick. He threw it at an officer. He went down Quadrant Road with an England flag wrapped around his face and later on his shoulders. He crouched down to put items in his pockets.”

Police attended the defendant’s home on June 23, 2025 and his iPhone was seized.

Meir Hulme, formerly of Malorie Road, Norton, but now of Little Chell Lane, Tunstall, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and assaulting an emergency worker by beating.

Catherine O’Reilly, mitigating, said Meir Hulme was 17 at the time and has no previous convictions or cautions. He has shown real remorse and has not committed any further offences since. She said there has been a long delay in the case.

Miss O’Reilly said: “It was completely out of character for this defendant. His family are horrified by his actions. They remain supportive of him but by no means condone this type of behaviour. He says he does not have any particular political views. He went to meet a group of friends and got caught up with what was happening around him and joined in. There was an exceptional level of immaturity on the part of this defendant. He says he has grown up a lot since then. He appreciates he has placed himself in a very, very difficult position.”

Meir Hulme has completed a bricklaying course.

Miss O’Reilly added: “His powerful mitigation, coupled with the delay in this case, allows you to step back from an immediate sentence. He is remorseful, embarrassed and ashamed.”

Judge Graeme Smith sentenced Meir Hulme to 18 months’ detention in a young offenders’ institution, suspended for two years, with 240 hours unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement for up to 20 days.

Judge Smith said: “You threw a number of missiles, a bottle of water, stones or bricks. There was an assault on an emergency worker. You threw a brick towards an officer at extremely close range. The group was targeting the mosque.

“There are significant mitigating factors: your age and lack of maturity, at the time you were only 17, you have no previous convictions, and you express genuine remorse. There has been a very significant delay. There is no obvious explanation as to why it happened. The case has been hanging over you for a year. Given these exceptional circumstances, I am just persuaded that I can suspend this sentence.”

Meir Hulme must pay £200 compensation to the officer as well as £150 costs.

Stoke Sentinel

A plumber who joined in a city centre riot has been put behind bars.

Kane Dunn threw missiles at police lines when disorder flared across Sunderland in August 2024 and mirrored similar scenes across the UK that summer.

Newcastle Crown Court heard Dunn launched four fire extinguishers, one of which hit an officer on the leg, hurled a metal chair and a traffic cone during the trouble.

Dunn, who is 26, admitted riot and has been jailed for 32 months.

The court heard he has been in no trouble before or since and handed in character references.

Ian West, defending, said Dunn had been working away in London and had given a pal a lift back to Sunderland, where he saw what was going on in the city.

Mr West said Dunn was initially “spectating and then filming” before he got involved.

Judge Edward Bindloss said Dunn, of Highland Gardens, had contacted a different friend when he saw the protest in Sunderland and gone to pick him up.

The judge said: “The two of you chose to go back, you didn’t need to, you could have just gone home.

“Once you were there you saw the disorder and chose to remain, you could have left when you saw how serious this was.

Sunderland Echo

Bailey Rogers, 21, watched the family, who were from an ethnic community, outside their home – before launching her attack in the midst of the 2024 riots

A rioter who tried to break down the front door of a flat as a family cowered inside their bathroom has been locked up.

Bailey Rogers repeatedly kicked at the door, before hammering at it with a weapon after watching the family, who the court heard were from an ethnic community.

Rogers, 21, was out on Middlesbrough’s Union Street alongside other rioters on August 4, 2024. She picked up bricks and threw them as the civil unrest saw cars set on fire; windows of local businesses smashed, and weapons thrown at the police.

CCTV operators tracked Rogers, Teesside Crown Court has heard, as she was “laughing and chatting happily to others”. She was captured watching three men standing outside their home, who were “watching as the mob approached them”.

The men, who the court heard are from an ethnic community, went inside and shut their front door. CCTV operators followed Rogers as she pulled her hood up, crossed the road and repeatedly try to kick the door in. Others began kicking the door and she shoulder barged it before taking something out of her backpack and hitting the door with that.

Saba Shan, prosecuting, said that the “terrified” family – which included a heavily pregnant mum and her young child – hid in their bathroom as multiple rioters tried to break down their front door.

Rogers was later identified from the hours of footage of the civil unrest by a police officer. She was arrested in November that year, and the court heard that she claimed she had attacked the door to the flat after members of the family had behaved in a “sexually threatening” way towards her.

On Wednesday, May 27, Judge Joanne Kidd rejected Rogers’ story, saying said there was no evidence to show it was true. Rogers told her barrister that she no longer wished to continue with her claim. She pleaded guilty to violent disorder at an earlier hearing.

Her barrister Charlie Thompson told the court that a psychiatrist had found that Rogers, who attended a special educational needs school, has a learning disability and is “easily led by others”. She was also found to be immature for her age and she was 19 when she took part in the riots.

Mr Thompson asked Judge Kidd to consider a suspended sentence. “Ms Rogers would lose her council flat, where she lives with her teenage brother, if she is sent to prison,” Mr Thompson said. “She is a temporary guardian to her brother and a carer for her mother”.

Rogers denied there was any racism behind her attack. But Judge Kidd said that a compilation of CCTV footage showed “three young men, from an ethnic community, standing outside their home watching a mob approach their home. They were terrified. You were watching them. It is no coincidence that you targeted their home.

“Your offending was motivated by a hostility to their race”.

The judge said she accepted that Rogers was intellectually impaired at the time but said there was no evidence that she was pressured to carry out the attack, rather she started it. “It is likely you were caught up with the festival-like atmosphere,” the judge said. “You were clearly enjoying the disorder”.

Rogers, of Ensign Court in Hartlepool, was jailed for 16 months.

Gazette Live

A man involved in the disorder that swept the country after the Southport killings subjected his partner to a “campaign of violence, threats, humiliation and intimidation”.

Keenan Sanders, 22, repeatedly assaulted and threatened the woman over several months in 2025 after having been released under investigation for his part in the disorder of summer 2024.

Bolton Crown Court heard how this involved attacking her with a knife, pushing her into barbed wire, strangling her, and even threatening to “cripple her”.

Judge Jon Close said: “The violence and threats were extreme in nature and often involved the use of a knife.”

He described that as a “campaign of violence, threats, humiliation and intimidation” which continued after he manipulated his victim to give falsely innocent explanations to others.

The case had previously been opened by Charlotte Rimmer, prosecuting, who told the court about the string of violent attacks Sanders had launched.

The court heard how, at one point, Sanders had pushed the woman into oncoming traffic, where she was only narrowly missed by a bus.

On another occasion, he threatened to cut the heels of her foot with a knife before then jabbing at her knee.

Judge Close said that Sanders, who appeared in court via video link from prison, “in essence threatened to cripple her”.

In yet another example of violence, Sanders threatened the victim and pushed her into barbed wire.

Judge Close said that the incidents set out before the court were only a “sample” of Sanders’s behaviour towards the woman during that period.

He described Sanders’s actions as “prolonged, persistent and cruel, at times bordering on sadistic”.

After he was arrested and remanded into custody, Sanders, of no fixed abode, still tried to contact the woman using the prison phone.

Fortunately, police were present when Sanders tried to make one of his calls and the scale of his attempts to keep in touch with her became clear.

Sanders confessed to controlling and coercive behaviour, wounding, S18 wounding, threats with a blade, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assault by beating and a S39 assault.

Concerning his victim, Judge Close told Sanders he was “responsible for the destruction of her personality in your attempts to build one that was subservient to your wishes”.

Judge Close noted Sanders has since been convicted of possession of an offensive weapon and criminal damage in connection with the violent disorder of 2024.

He was released under investigation in connection with the offences during his campaign of abuse against his partner.

The court had previously heard from Mark Friend, defending, how being remanded was Sanders’s first experience of the criminal justice system.

He said that the defendant had been just 21 at the time, had endured a difficult upbringing and had ADHD.

Judge Close jailed Sanders for 10 years and made him subject to a lifetime restraining order against his victim.

Bolton News

Exclusive: Police data shows 21% of the 949 people detained in England and Northern Ireland were later accused of violence against intimate partner

One out of every five people arrested after their participation in the 2024 summer riots has since been reported to the police for domestic abuse, the Guardian can disclose.

Police data released under freedom of information (FoI) laws shows that 21% of 949 people arrested for taking part in the violent disorder have been reported for crimes associated with intimate partner violence since August 2024.

For individuals arrested by Cumbria police, this figure was as high as 54%.

Offences for which alleged rioters have since been reported include common assault, controlling and coercive behaviour, breach of domestic violence protection notice and injunctions, threats to kill, actual bodily harm, and criminal damage.

The Guardian previously revealed that two out of every five arrested for participating in the riots had been the subject of a domestic abuse report before their involvement in the public disorder.

Calls to protect women and children alongside anti-migrant rhetoric have been a common feature of these rallies.

The Guardian’s data was obtained through FoI requests sent to 21 police forces covering the 27 towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland where the 2024 riots took place.

The 27 towns were identified as sites of significant disorder in a House of Commons briefing document published in September 2024. Between 30 July and 7 August 2024, an estimated 29 anti-immigration demonstrations and riots took place.

Thousands participated in rioting in some locations and many involved significant property damage.

In Hull, 116 people were arrested. Just under three in 10 – 33 in total – have since been reported for domestic abuse, Humberside police said.

In Rotherham, where hundreds attacked and set fire to an asylum hotel, 171 people were arrested, 40 of whom have since been reported for domestic abuse, South Yorkshire police said.

In Bristol, Avon and Somerset police reported that of the 60 people arrested, 12 have since been subject to reports relating to domestic abuse offences.

Four police forces were unable to provide information on domestic abuse reports within cost limits for FoI requests, including Merseyside police and Greater Manchester police. Southport and Liverpool were the sites of several days of rioting as Merseyside police made 221 arrests.

Keenan Sanders, 22, was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon and criminal damage while participating in the public disorder in Manchester.

After his release under investigation, Sanders subjected his partner to coercive and controlling behaviour in addition to attacks with a knife, strangling, pushing her into oncoming traffic and threatening to cripple her. Sentencing Sanders to 10 years in prison, the judge described his actions as “prolonged, persistent and cruel, at times bordering on sadistic”.

Keir Starmer, speaking in the aftermath, said that rioters could expect to be held on remand and rapidly brought before the courts. Former home secretary Yvette Cooper also promised that participants would face “swift justice”.

The first prison sentence was handed down a week after the riots took place. Justice officials have since revealed that magistrates courts came close to being shut down as prisons struggled to meet capacity for those being fast-tracked through the justice system and remanded to custody.

Data provided by the National Police Chiefs’ Council shows that 50% of individuals have now been charged after their arrests. The Crown Prosecution Service disclosed that 43% have been convicted for offences committed during the violent disorder. For one police force, this was as low as 8%.

Cumbria police reported that of the 26 people arrested, 14 have since been reported for domestic abuse offences. Only four of the 26 arrested have been convicted for any offences committed during the riots.

In Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, Cleveland police made 182 arrests, 38 of whom have since been subject to a domestic abuse report. In the month after the riots in both towns, five individuals were reported for domestic abuse offences which included malicious communication, threats to destroy property and assault.

Farah Nazeer, the chief executive of Women’s Aid, said: “Since 2024, we’ve seen many of those attending the protests that erupted into riots carrying placards with the likes of ‘protect our women’ scrawled on them. It’s worrying to think that in those same crowds were people who had themselves committed, or been accused of, domestic abuse offences.

“It’s important to remember that the most common danger for women does not come from the streets or from strangers, but from people they already know. Most commonly, current or ex-partners.

“It is vital that myths surrounding domestic abuse, and who is most likely to perpetrate it, are called out. We need the government to do more to challenge these harmful stereotypes and to raise greater awareness that it is misogyny that underpins domestic abuse, not immigration status.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Violence against women and girls is a national emergency, and we will continue to deploy the full power of the state to bring vile perpetrators to justice, and prevent harm before it occurs.

“Our violence against women and girls strategy sets out how we will pursue and manage domestic abuse perpetrators. This includes through the rollout of new domestic abuse protection orders to help police forces identify and target the most dangerous perpetrators.”

In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via http://www.befrienders.org.

The Guardian