'You are a dangerous offender. History could repeat itself'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A rioter who set fire to a generator as a mob besieged a hotel housing asylum seekers has been jailed for six years. Scott Greenwood, 34, was filmed throwing wood on the fire during the disorder at the Holiday Inn Express at Manvers, near Rotherham, on August 4, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Judge Jeremy Richardson KC described how Greenwood was part of a group that set fire to items around a disused generator and then fed the blaze with fencing smashed down from nearby gardens.

Judge Richardson said the fire was not as serious as another blaze started earlier that afternoon outside the fire door of the hotel, but the “vigorous” blaze still posed a serious danger to police and to residents in the houses behind the generator. READ MORE: Rioter jailed over disorder outside Rotherham hotel dies in prison The court heard that Greenwood was later spotted at the forefront of a mob taunting a line of riot police and stoked a grass fire which had been lit to create a smoke hazard for the officers.

The judge heard that the defendant was easily identified when he took off his shirt and tied it round his face and also because of a distinctive St George’s flag bucket hat he was wearing.