Five jailed after hundreds attended illegal rave on outskirts of Bristol
Five people have been jailed following an illegal Halloween rave in Yate.
Between 500 and 700 people attended the rave and police officers were attacked as they stopped hundreds more accessing the site on Saturday 31 October.
Three men and two women admitted assaulting emergency workers, obstructing police and failing to leave land as requested at a magistrates hearing on 6 April and 13 April.
One man, in his 20s and from Devon, was jailed for 38 weeks after pleading guilty to spitting at a police officer, among other charges.
The other four defendants collectively received sentences totalling 22 weeks in prison, including a six-week sentence for a woman who kicked an officer. A sixth person was fined more than £450.
A further 15 people were issued fixed penalty notices for breaching coronavirus restrictions. This includes two men who received £10,000 fines for their role in organising it. Six people were sentenced back in February for crimes committed at the same event.
DS Harriet Drewett said: “Hundreds of people that evening believed their desire to have a night out was more important the protecting the health of their loved ones and people in their community."
She said some people travelled "significant distances" to go to the event, which happened on the same night Boris Johnson announced a second lockdown.
She called their behaviour "reckless and selfish in the extreme", adding: “Officers who attended that night also faced shocking levels of hostility and in some cases violence, which is completely unacceptable."
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