Rioter who stoked fire at migrant hotel handed longest sentence yet | LBC

Shelagh Fogarty spoke to LBC's Alex Taylor Brown after Thomas Birley was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday for taking part in a riot in Rotherham on 4 August.

It's the longest prison stretch so far to be handed out by a judge following widespread violence which broke out in the wake of the Stockport attacks on July 29.

Birley, 27, of Swinton, Rotherham, had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of arson with intent to endanger life, violent disorder, as well as possessing an offensive weapon.

He formed part of a group which helped smash in windows at a Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, before setting fire to the building and adding wood to stoke the flames.

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