Rioters who tried to set hotel on fire jailed

Two men who admitted arson at a Rotherham hotel that housed asylum seekers have been handed some of the longest prison sentences imposed following last summer's rioting.

Mason Lowe, 28, and Morgan Heeley, 26, both of Barnsley, also admitted violent disorder at the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers on 4 August.

Heeley threw a fire extinguisher at police while Lowe tried to stop people putting out a blaze, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

At sentencing on Monday, Heeley was jailed for eight years and Lowe for seven years and six months. Both men were told they would serve a further three years on licence.

The longest sentences saw two men each jailed for nine years.

The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, said as well as "truly appalling civil disorder", both Heeley and Lowe were "at the fore" of the mob.

Trainee barber Heeley was sentenced to eight years in prison for arson with intent to endanger life and three years and four months for violent disorder, to be served concurrently.

He was seen spraying a fire extinguisher and throwing it at police, hitting an officer over the head with a plank and attempting to set the hotel's curtains alight.

Lowe was jailed for seven years, six months for arson with intent to endanger life, with three years and nine months to be served concurrently for violent disorder.

He was seen kicking at officers, attempting to grab a riot shield, drinking alcohol and holding plywood against a broken fire door to stop people extinguishing the fire, Judge Richardson said.

Driving the couple's Mercedes with his children crying inside, his partner told him to "grow up", the judge said, adding that both men's families were "materially affected by [their] criminal conduct".

It was "immaterial" that neither man started the fire as both were "well to the fore", chanting "high-octane racist abuse", Judge Richardson said.

Lowe's previous driving offences would not be considered during sentencing, the judge said, but Heeley's more serious convictions, including affray and taking weapons into prison, would count, he said.

The judge acknowledged Heeley struggled academically at school and may have been "looking for kudos" at the riots.

"There is no doubt that the families of each of you will suffer as a consequence of what you did," Judge Richardson told the men.

He said it was true the families of criminals suffered "almost as much".

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