Man jailed for 9 years for setting fire to asylum seekers’ hotel in UK anti-Muslim riots

LONDON – A Briton was ordered jailed for nine years on Sept 6 for arson at a hotel housing asylum seekers in August, by far the longest sentence imposed over a wave of anti-Muslim riots.

Thomas Birley, 27, pleaded guilty to arson with intent to endanger life after stoking a fire in a bin at an entrance to a hotel near Rotherham in northern England on Aug 4.

Prosecutor Elisha Kay said Birley added wood to an already-flaming industrial bin that was placed in front of a fire door of the hotel while staff and guests sheltered inside. She said hotel staff barricaded themselves in a panic room and “thought they were going to burn to death”.

Birley, who also pleaded guilty to violent disorder and possessing an offensive weapon, was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court by Judge Jeremy Richardson, who said his actions were “suffused with racism from beginning to end”.

The judge said Birley was encouraged to join the disorder “by malicious and ignorant posts” on social media. “You were a leading participant in ignorant, racist attempts at mob rule,” he said.

The hotel was targeted by about 400 people during days of rioting involving violence, arson and looting as well as racist attacks after three young girls were killed in the northern English town of Southport on July 29.

The attack was initially falsely blamed on an Islamist migrant following online misinformation.

A protest in Southport the day after the killings turned violent, and riots spread across the country, leading to about 1,300 arrests and around 200 people being jailed. The longest sentence over the riots had until Sept 6 been six years for violent disorder. Others have been charged for inciting racial or religious hatred online. REUTERS