'Rioters did not care if we got home that night'

Police on the frontline of 2024's riots have spoken about the violence they faced and its ongoing impact.

Disorder broke out across the UK, including in Hartlepool, Sunderland and Middlesbrough, in July and August last year.

Officers from Durham Police were deployed to support neighbouring forces as they struggled to contain the riots.

PC Scott Dobinson, who was called to Hartlepool, said: "I genuinely got the feeling the people who were doing it did not care if me or my colleagues got home that night."

Bricks and bottles were thrown at riot police near the town centre during several hours of violence.

After turning into a street, he said he saw a "sea of a few hundred people" compared to just "six cops and a sergeant".

"There were bricks getting thrown, it was just carnage," he said.

PC Dobinson says having children of primary school age joining in the trouble after being handed bricks by adults was a shocking aspect.

The officer was later injured after concrete ballast thrown at him "exploded" on the floor and got underneath his riot shield, striking and almost breaking his leg.

His colleague, Insp Leon Usher, was sent to Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Darlington.

He said the intensity of the trouble in Middlesbrough was of a kind he had never experienced before.

Insp Usher said: "I'd never seen it [violence] from so many people at so many different locations in such a short space of time.

"At the end of that week, we were just exhausted.

"There are memories I would rather not have; police officers being injured and members of the public being completely petrified.

"Hopefully, that won't happen again, but we're here if it does."

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