Man who stopped drivers during Middlesbrough riot to check if they were ‘white’ or 'English' jailed

A man who stopped drivers in Middlesbrough to check if they were “white” or “English” during the summer riots has been jailed.

Jake Wray, 23, of Seaton Street, Middlesbrough, was sentenced to three years and two months in prison after admitting violent disorder in the town on August 4, including trying to set a car on fire, making racist chants and pushing flaming wheelie bins into police lines.

He was serving a 24-week suspended sentence for spitting at a police officer and carrying a knife at the time.

Judge Richard Bennett, sentencing at Teesside Crown Court, told Wray: “(Your) behaviour was disgraceful and in no way reflects the values of the decent people of Middlesbrough.”

The judge said Wray’s offending was violent, “overtly racist” and included arson that day.

Wray, wearing a distinctive red top and an England flag around his shoulders, stopped cars at a junction in the town centre and was caught on mobile phone footage asking drivers about the colour of their skin.

On the clip which was played in court, while he stood blocking traffic, Wray could be heard asking: “Are you white, are you English?”

The judge said the incident was so shocking, it was played on the national TV news.

Further clips showed him setting fire to a wheelie bin which was pushed towards police lines and helicopter video captured him interfering with a red hatchback which minutes later burst into flames.

Wray told police that he was merely stopping cars to warn drivers, but he no longer stood by that account.

Judge Bennett said: “You were clearly enjoying the attention and power of being masked during a frightening event for those drivers.”

A clip was played in court of Wray, with his England flag over his mouth as a mask, approaching a police video operator and shouting.

Harry Crowson, defending, said Wray initially denied the racial motive for stopping the cars “out of embarrassment and shame”.

Mr Crowson said the defendant had repeatedly watched the clips in court over several hearings, adding: “In the cold light of day, he doesn’t even believe the things that came out of his mouth that day.

“He is quite appalled by it.”

Wray’s partner, Megan Davison, and her mother, Amanda Walton, have also been jailed for violent disorder.

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