Painter handed longest sentence over summer riots so far as he is jailed for nine years

Thomas Birley was jailed for nine years, with an extended licence period of five years, at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday.

Undated handout photo issued by South Yorkshire Police of painter and decorator Thomas Birley (South Yorkshire Police/PA). (PA Media)

A painter and decorator who fuelled a fire outside a hotel housing hundreds of asylum seekers in Rotherham has been handed the longest prison sentence so far over the riots in August.

Thomas Birley was jailed for nine years, with an extended licence period of five years, at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday.

Recorder of Sheffield Judge Jeremy Richardson KC told Birley, 27, his case was “unquestionably” one of the most serious of the dozens he has dealt with in the last month in relation to the rioting outside the Holiday Inn Express, at Manvers, on August 4.

The court heard how Birley, of Rowms Lane, Swinton, Rotherham, was involved in many of the worst incidents on that Sunday afternoon, 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.

Birley was also filmed throwing missiles at the police, squaring up to officers while brandishing a police baton and throwing a large bin which crashed into a line of police with riot shields.

The defendant became the first person to be sentenced for arson with intent to endanger life following the 12 hours of violence in Manvers, which left 64 police officers, three horses and a dog injured.

Judge Richardson heard how 22 staff in the hotel barricaded themselves into the hotel’s panic room with freezers and “thought they were going to burn to death”.

He said he needed to pass an extended sentence due to Birley’s ongoing dangerousness, which included the extended five-year licence period.