Teens plead guilty to rioting in summer unrest

Two teenagers have pleaded guilty to rioting, police have said, after disorder over the summer saw a hotel used by asylum seekers targeted by violent groups.

The Holiday Inn in Tamworth was attacked on 4 August as a wave of disorder swept the country.

Aged 14 and 17, the youths cannot be named for legal reasons, but Staffordshire Police said they were only the third and fourth people in the county to face the more serious charge of rioting.

They are due to be sentenced at Cannock Magistrates' Court on 4 April.

The force said the17-year-old also admitted assaulting an emergency worker.

Officers said they had arrested 200 suspects last year in connection with violent disorder in Stoke-on-Trent and Tamworth, and a total of 82 people had so far been charged.

They said they expected more charges to follow, and that they had been trawling through footage from August to gather the evidence needed to bring cases to court.

Trouble broke out in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, on 3 August, during which police came under fire from missiles, including metal poles and bricks.

Rioters also targeted the Holiday Inn Express in Tamworth a day later, starting a fire.

The disorder was part of a wave of protests and riots that swept the UK in the wake of the Southport stabbings, driven in part by false claims the culprit was an asylum seeker.

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