Man admits stoking fire outside hotel housing asylum seekers during riot

Levi Fishlock, 31, pleaded guilty to arson with intent to endanger the lives of dozens of people inside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham.

Levi Fishlock during an anti-immigration demonstration outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham (Danny Lawson/PA) (PA Wire)

A 31-year-old man has admitted arson with intent to endanger the lives of dozens of asylum seekers and staff who were trapped inside a hotel as rioters besieged the building.

Levi Fishlock was a prominent figure in the disorder outside the Holiday Inn Express at Manvers, Rotherham, on August 4 – especially as he was wearing a distinctive purple England football shirt with “Bellingham” written on the back.

Fishlock, of Sheffield Road, Barnsley, was due to go on trial in December but pleaded guilty to violent disorder and arson with intent to endanger life when he appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday.

He will be sentenced on December 11, Judge Peter Hampton told him.

Previous hearings have heard how Fishlock, who appeared in court wearing a blue-and-white Adidas T-shirt and flanked by one custody officer, was part of a group who pushed a burning bin against the hotel and stoked the fire.

Last month, painter and decorator Thomas Birley, 27, received the longest sentence so far following the violence which erupted in early August, after he admitted similar offences to Fishlock in relation to the same bin-burning incident.

Birley was jailed for nine years by a judge who heard how he was involved in a number of aspects of the disorder, including adding wood to the fire in the large industrial bin which had been pushed against an exit, and helping place a further bin on top of the one ablaze.

More than 60 men have so far been jailed for their parts in the disorder outside the hotel, which left 64 police officers injured, as well as four dogs and a horse.

Sheffield Crown Court has heard how more than 200 asylum seekers were trapped in the upper floors as rioters smashed windows and set light to the bin, which was pushed against a fire door.

Hotel staff have told the court how they barricaded themselves into a panic room during the rioting, fearing they would die as they smelt the smoke.

Also on Thursday, Jake Turton, 38, of Darfield, Barnsley, admitted driving a pick-up truck loaded with debris to the disorder at the hotel which rioters plundered for weapons to throw at police.

Turton admitted violent disorder at Sheffield Crown Court and will be sentenced on November 6.

The court has previously heard how Turton was filmed arriving at the scene in a Ford Ranger truck which had wood and other debris on the back.

Prosecutors have described how a police helicopter captured people grabbing numerous items from the vehicle which were then used to throw at riot police and fuel the fires which had been set around the hotel.

On Thursday, Abigail Langford, defending, told Judge Sarah Wright that the prosecution have not alleged that her client loaded the vehicle with the intention the items would be used to attack the police.

She said: “The Crown do not say that the defendant was arming people with the wood.

“It was on the back of the vehicle and people helped themselves to it. He was present at the scene but he did not actively participate.”

Judge Wright told Turton he faced an “inevitable custodial sentence”.

The defendant denied a second charge of taking a vehicle without consent and, after the prosecution offered no evidence, he was formally found not guilty of this charge.

Both Fishlock and Turton were remanded in custody.