An engineer who fought officers outside a hotel housing asylum seekers and a thug who shouted in a police dog’s face are among the latest rioters put behind bars. 

Manufacturing engineer Liam Gray, 20, was caught on video repeatedly charging at a line of police with riot shields outside the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, near Rotherham, on August 4.

He has now been jailed for three years at Sheffield Crown Court, after being seen trying to grab officers’ shields in the violent disorder in the South Yorkshire town.

Gray, of Randerson Drive in Kilnhurst, South Yorkshire, was also seen among a crowd outside the hotel at a number of different points during the afternoon as police attempted to disperse them.

The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, said: ‘You have brought shame on yourself. You have brought shame on your mother and father. You have brought shame on the town in which you live.’

Judge Richardson noted that 58 police officers, three police dogs and a police horse were injured in the disorder, which also saw attempts to storm the hotel to set light to the building.

Courts have continued to be packed with defendants after far-right yobs took to high streets in towns and cities across the UK following the killings of three young girls in Southport on July 29.

The attack was wrongly blamed on a fictitious Islamist migrant, a theory spread through online misinformation.

Accused Axel Rudakubana, born in Cardiff to Christian parents from Rwanda, has been charged with three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed weapon.

Following the tragedy, far-right activists began targeting mosques and accommodation for asylum seekers.

Violence broke out in cities across England and also in Northern Ireland – and has been followed by a hundreds of charges including for children as young as 12, while those arrested also include a 69-year-old accused of vandalism in Liverpool. 

Among the latest defendants was a man who shouted in a police dog’s face during rioting that marred Bristol and called opponents ‘p*** c****’ and has now been jailed for 20 months.

Bradley McCarthy, 34, joined an anti-immigration march on August 3 and was involved in clashes with counter-protesters and police in Castle Park and on Bristol Bridge.

McCarthy was caught on video ‘threatening’ opponents and shouting at the police, including at a police dog.

Emily Evans, prosecuting, said the defendant played a ‘prominent role’ in the incident.

‘He is first sighted interacting with left-wing protesters. His behaviour is described as being threatening with him engaging in football-style chants,’ she said.

‘He is at one stage referring to members of the opposition as “p*** c***s”. He also threatens to “write their face off”. He is seen to be goading protesters to cross the police line.’

Bristol Crown Court heard McCarthy was arrested for breach of the peace and later let go by officers but remained in the area.

‘But instead of taking that as a sign to go home, he can later be seen shouting at police officers and also shouting in a police dog’s face,’ Miss Evans said.

The police later made a public appeal after issuing a photo of the defendant and he handed himself in.

At a previous hearing McCarthy, of Knowle in Bristol, admitted violent disorder.

The father-of-three has convictions for violence, weapons offences and public order but had not been in trouble for several years.

Robyn Rowlands, defending, said McCarthy had recently tried to help a person at the roadside who was dying after trying to take their own life, which had an ‘exceptional effect’ on his mental health.

‘This is somebody who appears to have in the last six years done a remarkable turnaround,’ he said.

‘He has a stable family life and is absolutely committed to his family.’

Passing sentence, Judge Julian Lambert said: ‘The unrest has been fuelled by misinformation circulating largely on social media.

‘Right-wing extremists and racists have been intent on provoking violence directed at innocent people and the police whose role it is to protect us all.

‘The disorder has been serious and widespread. In particular, refugees and asylum seekers have been targeted, as have some of the premises where they are housed whilst being processed by the Home Office.’

The judge said McCarthy had been part of a group trying to goad the police.

‘You were then shouting at officers, including aggressively getting to the level of a dog and shouting in its face for some reason,’ he added.

‘You did all this in a tinderbox atmosphere where it only takes the actions of one person to spark very serious group violence. You should have well understood the potential incendiary effect of your actions.

‘The law respects the right of freedom of expression and peaceful protest. It cannot tolerate resort to violence and threats.’

A single father who also took part in violent clashes with the police during the anti-immigration protest in Bristol has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Craig Timbrell, 38, threw concrete blocks, bricks and bottles at the police near to a hotel used to house asylum seekers, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Meabh McGee, prosecuting, said Timbrell was filmed throwing objects at the police during clashes near the Mercure Hotel in the Redcliffe area of the city.

She said: ‘There was targeting of locations known to accommodate asylum seekers and refugees.

‘The situation escalated to the point where there was significant disorder and violence used towards officers, property and opposing groups.’

Others who were involved in the disturbances outside the Rotherham hotel have also been jailed, after what South Yorkshire Police called their ‘disgraceful’ behaviour. 

Niven Matthewman, 19, and 48-year-old Dylan White were punished for their involvement in an attack on a police dog van.

The police force said their actions left two officers and a police dog inside the vehicle fearful for their safety due to the immense rocking of the van.

The handler of the police dog inside the van had to watch from the crowd, worried for his dog’s safety.

In personal victim impact statement delivered to a court, he explained how he had ‘great concern for those inside and my dog’.

Matthewman was captured on CCTV and, after a public media appeal, the teenager handed himself in to officers, admitting he was ashamed of his behaviour.

Matthewman, of Albert Street, Swinton, Rotherham, pleaded guilty to violent disorder last Wednesday at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court.

He was yesterday sentenced to two years and eight months in a young offender institution and handed a Criminal Behaviour Order for ten years.

White, of The Farmstead in Bolton-Upon-Dearne, pleaded guilty to violent disorder last Tuesday before Sheffield magistrates and was jailed for two years last Friday.

And a 19-year-old man who threw missiles at police protecting the Rotherham hotel was imprisoned for two years and three months at Sheffield Crown Court.

Apprentice bricklayer Alfie Conway, of Park Avenue in South Kirby, Pontefract, was arrested after one officer standing behind a riot shield outside the Holiday Inn , recognised him and shouted that he would be going to prison.

As Conway admitted violent disorder yesterday, the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson, heard how the defendant had a troubled past but had worked hard to secure an apprenticeship.

The judge asked him: ‘What on earth possessed him to truly throw all of that away to hurl whatever it was at police officers – one of whom knew exactly who he was?’

He told Conway, ‘You have been exceptionally foolish’, and expressed his sympathy for the offender’s grandparents who were watching from the public gallery. 

The same judge also jailed for three years and four months 42-year-old man who shouted abuse at police guarding the Rotherham hotel.

Sheffield Crown Court heard how Lee Crisp, of Mount Road in Grimethorpe, Barnsley, was even abusing police after his arrest outside the Holiday Inn Express – telling one officer: ‘You’re protecting the b*****ds who are raping our kids.’

Stephanie Hollis, prosecuting, said the defendant shouted at one officer: ‘Take your f***ing uniform off, I’ll knock the f*** out of you’ and ‘You f***ing horrible little c***;.

Ms Hollis said factory worker Crisp celebrated as the group he was with threw missiles at the officers.

When Crisp appeared at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court earlier this month, his solicitor told a district judge his client was a victim of mistaken identity as he took his elderly mother for a Sunday lunch in the pub next to the hotel.

Crisp did not maintain this defence when he appeared at crown court yesterday.

The judge Mr Richardson said the ‘high octane’ abuse dished out by Crisp encouraged the crowd, adding: ‘You were leading the way in all of this, in four separate incidents.’ 

As Crisp was led from the dock, a woman shouted from the public gallery, ‘Absolute disgrace’, and the judge ordered her to be thrown out of the court building.