First Hartlepool rioters sentenced to jail at Teesside Crown Court

Five men, who have all pleaded guilty earlier to violent behaviour in ugly scenes in and around Murray Street on July 31 are due to be sentenced at Teesside Crown Court today (Thursday, August 8).

It is after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promised swift justice for anyone involved in far-right instigated riots that have swept the country.

Steven Mailen, 54, a former school governor and post master, and his partner Ryan Sheers, 29, have each been jailed for 26 months for violent disorder.

Rachel Masters, prosecuting, described how police became aware of a number of posts on social media last Wednesday morning when addresses of asylum seekers in Hartlepool were circulated.

People were encouraged to attend a pre-organised protest and by 6pm a group of protesters, some of whom were carrying England flags, had gathered at the cenotaph in the town centre.

Ms Masters said: “The group quickly grew in size in the region of 200 people. By eight o’clock the protest had begin to turn violent.”

It moved to Murray Street and Lowthian Road area where police were attacked with bottles, bricks and cans of beer.

Mailen was described as “one of the main instigators of the violence”.

He and his partner Ryan Sheers, 29, who had been to bingo and were in drink, were on their way to the shops to buy more alcohol when they confronted riot police.

Mailen “taunted” officers and encouraged the crowd to use violence towards the police.

He was struck on the leg twice with a police baton when he refused to move away.

Mailen also kicked a police officer on the shin and was aggressive when Sheers tried to push through the police cordon and shouted at police.

Sheers, of Powlett Road, Hartlepool was bitten on the right buttock by a police dog.

The court heard it took three officers to restrain and arrest Mailen, a support worker of Elliott Street, Hartlepool.

Nigel Soppitt, mitigating for Mailen and Sheers, said they had nothing to do with the far-right and they had helped a neighbour who moved here from another country.

Neither had any previous convictions.

Teesside’s resident judge Francis Laird KC said the pair were “at the very forefront of the mob”.

He told them: “Your behaviour and the behaviour of others around you was truly disgraceful.”

Judge Laird added: "The public are rightly outraged by this behaviour on the streets of this country. For this scale of offending, only a custodial sentence can be justified.”