A couple has been sentenced to 21 months in jail for their role in a riot protesting taxes spent on asylum seekers in Staffordshire
Tamworth: So, there’s this couple, Colin and David, who got themselves into a heap of trouble. They joined a riot outside a hotel because they were upset about their taxes going to house asylum seekers. Now, they’re both sitting in jail for 21 months.
It all went down at the Holiday Inn Express on August 4. They showed up wearing matching football shirts and jumped into a crowd of protesters. Things got wild, and they caused a ton of damage—almost £100,000 worth!
For about an hour, they were part of the chaos, with people throwing all sorts of stuff at the police. Colin was shouting at the officers, and David was right there with him, egging everyone on. They were caught on camera, and it didn’t look good.
The prosecutor laid it all out in court. They were seen encouraging the crowd to push forward against the police. David even laughed when a firework went off. They were really vocal about their frustrations, shouting things like they weren’t going to pay for “those d***heads” in the hotel.
When the police arrested them, David claimed he didn’t think he did anything wrong, but he did admit it could look racist. Colin just wanted to make a point about his taxes. They both pleaded guilty to violent disorder.
Their lawyer said they were just naive and didn’t realize how serious their actions were. They didn’t even try to hide who they were. They’ve been in custody for four months, and apparently, they’ve been model prisoners since then.
When the judge sentenced them, he said they were just curious about the protest but should have stayed away. He called their actions “wanton lawlessness” and made it clear that they were part of a bigger problem.
He told them they’d have to serve at least half of their sentence in jail and slapped a ban on them from going to that hotel or any place housing asylum seekers. It’s a tough lesson learned for these two.
