\n<\/p>\n
It was a scene that became the defining image of the year for many. Flames licking up the side of a grey breezeblock hotel with balaclava-clad men jostling around, kicking, smashing windows, throwing debris on the fire.<\/p>\n
Protests were not uncommon outside the Holiday Inn in Manvers near Rotherham, which housed 200 asylum seekers, but there would be something different about Sunday 4 August 2024, coming after the murder of three young girls in Southport by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana days earlier.<\/p>\n
It was not the first riot of the weekend instigated by the far right but it would be the biggest and it would bring to a close a week of violent clashes between communities and with the police.<\/p>\n
The demonstration was supposed to be peaceful \u2013 at least, from the point of view of many of those who had gathered there to make a stand, as they saw it, against their town becoming a dumping ground for people the country did not want or know what to do with. But from the very start it was clear there was a contingent who had planned to cause harm, to drive out the asylum seekers at any cost, perhaps even to kill them.<\/p>\n
Later, authorities would be reeling from how close the events came to being deadly, with police only just gaining control after rioters smashed their way into the hotel. It was a \u201cdark day\u201d, according to South Yorkshire police\u2019s assistant chief constable, Lindsey Butterfield.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the first anniversary of the violence, the Guardian spoke to a dozen men, aged 20 to 64 at the time, who received prison sentences for their part in the riot.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Police in riot gear at the scene of the Rotherham riots on 2 August last year. <\/span> Photograph: Danny Lawson\/PA<\/p>\n Most lived a few miles away from the scene and none considered themselves to be racist, though most demonstrated a readiness to believe racist lies spread on Facebook about the refugees living in their area raping women or children. And they were quick to take matters into their own hands, blaming all asylum seekers.<\/p>\n Though each of the rioters had their own motivations, there was a common theme of mistrust in authority and the media. Some said they\u2019d seen Rotherham decline steadily over the years. \u201cEverybody\u2019s just fed up aren\u2019t they? You can\u2019t get a dentist, it\u2019s hard work,\u201d said one rioter.<\/p>\n Reform UK is gaining ground in this part of South Yorkshire, with the anti-establishment rhetoric of Nigel Farage having strong appeal.<\/p>\n Perhaps surprisingly, most were eager to talk, glad to be given the opportunity to voice their feelings about unfair sentences and the public misunderstanding of the kind of people they were.<\/p>\n For some, the violence had been a \u201cwake-up call\u201d, with the partner of one rioter saying he had PTSD from going to prison and had \u201ccompletely changed\u201d. He had been on drugs and alcohol \u2013 there were numerous alcohol monitoring tags among the released men \u2013 but \u201che has turned himself around, it was the catalyst that stopped it all\u201d.<\/p>\n Wives and girlfriends spoke of how tough it had been for them, particularly looking after children without the support of their spouse. Christmas had been especially challenging for young children with a parent behind bars.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been the worst experience of my life,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was the first time I\u2019ve ever known anyone go to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n Glyn Guest, a 61-year-old retired window cleaner, said he was walking his dog Ollie near the hotel when he was drawn in, having not known there was going to be a protest.<\/p>\n <\/span>Glyn Guest was sentenced to two years and eight months for violent disorder.<\/span> Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cI heard a load of shouting and bawling and that were it,\u201d he said. He was sentenced to two years and eight months for violent disorder after continually walking up to the police line and being pushed back \u2013 getting his nose broken \u2013 and at one point grabbing a riot shield. His version of events was that a police officer \u201clost her footing\u201d but the court interpreted the video as him pulling her over, which she said had left her \u201cterrified for her safety\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t agree with them when they were setting fires and that. I thought that were a bit harsh like, chucking house bricks and that. I didn\u2019t go down for trouble.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the judge just wouldn\u2019t listen. It was bad. I can\u2019t weigh it up,\u201d he adds, about the length of his sentence.<\/p>\n He said being locked up was \u201chard\u201d and he lost a lot of weight \u2013 his face looked drawn compared with the mugshot taken when he handed himself into police.<\/p>\n All the men who spoke to the Guardian wanted to make it clear they were not far-right \u2013 a label that had made prison dangerous and terrifying, serving their time alongside gangs of non-white offenders who \u201cwere after us because a screw grassed us up\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were waiting for us, with the riot \u2013 but it was wrong, they got it all wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Those who were sentenced to two or three years served about a third of their sentence before they were released on licence, wearing ankle tags that require them to be home between the hours of 7pm and 7am.<\/p>\n The scene in Manvers last summer \u2013 with lines of officers pushing back groups of men \u2013 was reminiscent of another era, when striking miners were subjugated in clashes with police.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to work at Manvers colliery, half a mile underneath the hotel,\u201d said Mick Woods, who was sentenced to two years. \u201cWe were on strike for a year and what did British people do? Nowt.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike the other rioters, all of whom said they had never been to a demonstration before, Woods has spent a good deal of time at protests and on picket lines in his 65 years. He cannot tolerate the way British people, especially the working class, do not stand up for themselves, he said, and is \u201cproud\u201d that he protested.<\/p>\n \u201cMy conscience is very clear. Very clear. The people what don\u2019t go down there [to protest], they are proper criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Woods appeared to be anti-immigration generally, his protest had been against \u201catrocious terrorist acts\u201d in Southport. He had sympathy for the asylum seekers, he said, and had not wanted them to be hurt. \u201cI don\u2019t blame people coming here. We\u2019re sticking us nose in people\u2019s business, all over the planet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In footage played in court, he was standing next to a man with a dog and told police officers if they hit him, the dog would get them. He called an officer a \u201cdisgrace to society\u201d. But the court agreed there was no physical violence from Woods, nor did he do anything to encourage it from anyone else.<\/p>\n \u201cI was shouting at the coppers saying, \u2018You should be ashamed of yersens.\u2019 And I went, \u2018You want a bumming by Gary Glitter.\u2019\u201d He laughed.<\/p>\n He\u2019d been a nuisance, but on any other day his behaviour may not have been considered criminal. Others referenced his case as an example of a particularly harsh sentence, though he said prison was on his \u201cbucket list\u201d and he saw himself as a \u201cpolitical prisoner\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t violent disorder, it was threatening behaviour, and I ought to have not admitted to it,\u201d he said. Almost all of the men said they felt under pressure from their solicitor to plead guilty to violent disorder, a serious offence that virtually guaranteed prison time.<\/p>\n \u201cPost office workers, they did the same to them and some of them took their lives,\u201d said Woods.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can say this, that and t\u2019other, and they\u2019ll make people into summat they\u2019re not, and that\u2019s what they did with me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>The riot in Rotherham escalated from a protest outside the Holiday Inn at Manvers, which was housing asylum seekers.<\/span> Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n At least 100 people have been charged by South Yorkshire police for the riots and 85 of those have been sentenced to a combined 213 years in prison. The force is continuing to arrest perpetrators of the violence.<\/p>\n In reality, for most of those individuals jailed, what they saw as harsh treatment only entrenched their beliefs. The father of two rioters who were sentenced for throwing objects at police, said he had gone down a far-right \u201crabbit hole\u201d online trying to understand why his sons were imprisoned for seemingly minor crimes. He believed his sons received such harsh sentences because they were \u201cprotesting immigration\u201d and that it was the prime minister, \u201ctwo-tier Keir\u201d Starmer, who was responsible.<\/p>\n \u201cIt were all [the] press that got us in jail,\u201d said Jordan Teal, 35, who was identified despite wearing a balaclava, and sentenced to two years and eight months for shouting at police that they were \u201cprotecting paedophiles\u201d and ripping off fence panels that were used as weapons. \u201cI hope you\u2019re proud of yourselves,\u201d he said to the Guardian.<\/p>\n In fact, South Yorkshire police had its own evidence gatherers, officers deployed with videocameras, as well as bodycam and aerial footage taken from two helicopters. Largely, though, it was the hundreds of hours of footage posted on social media by the rioters themselves that got them convicted.<\/p>\n Joel Goodman, a photojournalist, refused to hand over any photos from the Rotherham riot, despite legal threats from South Yorkshire police.<\/p>\n <\/span>Demonstrators met with a wall of riot shields.<\/span> Photograph: Danny Lawson\/PA<\/p>\n Michael Shaw, now 27, has the footage on his phone of the kick against a riot shield that was part of a clash that landed him two years and six months. \u201cThey absolutely battered me that day, did the coppers.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the helmets and body armour, and behind the polycarbonate shields on one of the warmest days of the year, there would not be a lot of patience for those who did not do as they were told.<\/p>\n A former soldier from the Yorkshire regiment, Shaw had gone \u201cwith no mask or gloves or anything\u201d, there was \u201cno intent\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Like others, he said: \u201cI\u2019m not racist, I just don\u2019t like it when people are raping women and children. It would be exactly the same if it were white lads.\u201d<\/p>\n He left the riot as the hotel was set on fire \u2013 did he feel bad for the asylum seekers trapped inside the hotel? \u201cNo comment.\u201d<\/p>\n It was clear, he said, the big sentences handed down for Rotherham and the other riots a year ago hadn\u2019t worked as a deterrent: \u201cJust look what\u2019s happening now in Epping.\u201d<\/p>\n So would he do it again? \u201cOne man\u2019s not going to make a difference. I wish I\u2019d have stayed in bed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was a scene that became the defining image of the year for many. Flames licking up the side of a grey breezeblock hotel with balaclava-clad men jostling around, kicking, smashing windows, throwing debris on the fire. 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