A rioter who helped fuel a fire outside a hotel housing asylum seekers has been jailed for nine years – the joint-highest sentence passed down so far following the nationwide disorder over the summer.
Levi Fishlock was a prominent figure in the disorder outside the Holiday Inn Express at Manvers, Rotherham, with a judge saying he “played a part in almost every aspect of the racist mob violence on that terrible day in August”.
Fishlock, of Sheffield Road, Barnsley, pleaded guilty at Sheffield Crown Court to violent disorder and arson with intent to endanger life.
Recorder of Sheffield Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said the case was one of the most serious he had dealt with as he jailed Fishlock for nine years, with an extended five-year licence period.
It is the joint-highest sentence given for the summer’s riots, with Thomas Birley, 27, of Swinton in South Yorkshire, also jailed for nine years in September.