Three more jailed over Rotherham asylum hotel riot

• Morgan Hardy was caught on body-worn camera throwing a chair at police

A man who threw a chair at riot police and another who claimed he was too drunk to remember what he had done have been jailed for their parts in trouble in Rotherham.

Morgan Hardy, 29, of Melton High Street, Rotherham, also threw fence panels and a fire extinguisher during the disorder outside the Holiday Inn Express on 4 August.

Sheffield Crown Court heard he was part of a group shouting "we want our country back" when a mob besieged the hotel, where more than 200 asylum seekers were being housed.

He could be seen on body-worn camera footage at the front of the crowd, taunting officers with his arms outstretched.

Judge Sarah Wright was told that, after his arrest, he asked police if the "immigrants" had all gone from the hotel.

When told that they had been moved, he said: “Good. No more women and children will be hurt.”

Rebecca Tanner, mitigating, said he was a hard-working family man who only went to the hotel to be nosey but ended up doing something he admitted was "deplorable".

She said: "He has brought shame on himself and shame on his family."

Hardy was jailed for three years.

Charlie Eames, of High Street, Sheffield, was also jailed in connection with the same incident.

Body-worn camera footage showed Eames at the front of the crowd with no shirt, but wearing a padded gillet and with a bottle of alcohol pushed down his waistband.

When prosecutor Neil Coxon suggested this was a bottle of beer, Eames corrected him over the prison videolink, stating it was a bottle of Stones Ginger Wine.

The footage showed Eames throwing an unknown object at the line of riot shields and then encouraging another man in a mask to throw a large piece of wood at officers.

Ms Tanner, who was also representing Eames, said her client was an alcoholic, had drunk a substantial amount before the incident captured on video, and could not remember throwing the object, which the court heard could have been a branch.

She said Eames, who admitted violent disorder, had seen the protest happening outside the hotel on TikTok before it turned violent and decided go along, believing it to be “peaceful”.

Ms Tanner told the court: “He readily accepts he was highly intoxicated.”

She added: “When the mood shifted, he became a willing participant.”

Eames was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Also on Thursday, father-of-five Cameron Callear, 30, of Orchard Way, Thurnscoe, was jailed for two years and 10 months for his part in the disorder.

Footage shown in court showed Callear kicking out at police riot shields and then breaking the leg off a chair which had been brought out of the hotel.

The defendant was then seen to throw the leg at police lines as another man launched the remains of the chair at officers.

All three men admitted violent disorder at previous hearings.