Portrait of England rioters emerges from court cases

Portrait of UK rioters emerges in round-the-clock court cases

Arrested include those with criminal records, a gifted runner, college students; nearly 600 charged with violence in London

msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 8/12/2011 6:19:10 AM ET 2011-08-12T10:19:10

LONDON — Portraits of those accused of violence, disorder and looting began to emerge Friday after another day of round-the-clock court hearings in London, Birmingham and Manchester for alleged offenders in Britain's worst unrest in decades.

They included suspects with criminal records, but also a teenage ballerina, the mother of a 6-week-old child, college students, and a gifted track and field athlete who has served as a youth ambassador for the London 2012 Olympics.

Meanwhile, police flooded the streets to maintain an uneasy peace. No major incidents of disorder were reported overnight Thursday.

Steve Kavanagh, deputy assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, said 16,000 officers would remain on duty in the capital on Friday. That is their biggest peacetime deployment and compares with a normal figure of around 2,500.

London police said Friday they have charged almost 600 people with violence, disorder and looting. Across the country, more than 1,700 people have been arrested.

Hundreds of stores were looted, buildings were set ablaze and several people died amid the mayhem that broke out Saturday in London and spread over four nights across England.

Victims include three men in Birmingham run down by a car as they defended their neighborhood. Police are questioning three suspects on suspicion of murder.

Detectives also opened a murder inquiry after a 68-year-old a man who confronted rioters on a London street died of his injuries late Thursday. A 22-year-old man was arrested Friday on suspicion of murder.

Grace of a grieving father speaks to a wounded Britain

Little leniency
The court system has shown little leniency in dealing with those accused of the participating in the unrest.

According to The Guardian, most judges considered the maximum punishment available to magistrates in lower courts — six months in prison and about $8,100 — to be insufficient for the alleged offenders. The cases were generally referred to higher courts, where they will be heard before a jury.

Few suspected rioters were granted bail.

Eighteen-year-old Chelsea Ives, a talented runner who has been pictured with lawmakers and sports stars in the House of Commons, was charged with rioting in east London after her mother saw her throwing bricks at a police car on television.

She even boasted that she had "the best day ever," the court was told, according to The Telegraph. In her role as an Olympics ambassador, she has met London Mayor Boris Johnson and London Olympics chief Sebastian Coe, the paper said.

"It was gut-wrenching but it was right. What could normal, honest parents do?" her mother Adrienne Ives told The Daily Express.

Video: Student recovering after attack in London riots

In the northern city of Manchester, 47-year-old Gary Herriot, who has 126 previous convictions, was found with $1,600 worth of jewelry, a court heard. He pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods and is set to be sentenced later, the Express said.

An 11-year-old girl in the central city of Nottingham was accused of being part of a "large scale rampage" when she hurled stones at windows, according to The Telegraph. She reportedly admitted to her part in the unrest and refused to apologize in court.

The girl was referred to a youth offender panel and she and her father were ordered to cooperate with local youth authorities, the paper said.

One person to hand herself in was a 17-year-old girl who had been doing ballet since she was a young child and aspired to be a dance teacher. Although she did not enter a plea, she turned herself in to police after seeing a photograph from CCTV of herself looting an electrical shop in Croydon, south London. Prosecutors say she was pictured stealing flat screen TVs from a store that lost $310,000 worth of property and suffered $24,400 in damages, The Guardian reported.

In south London, 23-year-old Nicholas Robinson, an electrical engineering student with no criminal record, was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to stealing bottles of water worth $5, The Guardian reported.

College graduate Natasha Reid, 24, handed herself in because she was "unable to sleep" after looting a television from an electrical store. She was warned that despite her remorse she could still face jail.

A millionaire's daughter, Laura Johnson, 19, was being held in jail after she appeared in court in Bexley near London after being arrested behind the wheel of a car filled with stolen electrical goods and alcohol worth some $7,500.

Ahmed Farah, 27, a journalism student, was refused bail after being charged with possession of a knife in Hackney, east London, scene of the some of the worst rioting in the capital.

Other cases reported included that of 20-year-old dental nurse Shereece Ashley, who was jailed for three months after leaving her infant son at home to join looters at a London store where she took a television and a DVD player; Linda Boyd, 31, who had 96 previous convictions for theft, will be sentenced next week over accusations that she stole alcohol, cigarettes and cellphone accessories in Manchester; and 16 defendants in northwest London accused of violent disorder for smashing windows and robbing diners at a cafe.

Too soft?
Police, meanwhile, hit back against claims they were too soft in their initial response to the disorder.

Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, acknowledged that police had faced "an unprecedented situation, unique circumstances" — but said it was police themselves, rather than "political interference," that got the situation under control.

"The more robust policing tactics you saw were not a function of political interference," he told the BBC. "They were a function of the numbers being available to allow the chief constables to change their tactics."

Britain's Parliament held an emergency debate on the riots Thursday, with Prime Minister David Cameron promising authorities would get strong powers to stop street mayhem from erupting again.

He said authorities were considering new powers, including allowing police to order thugs to remove masks or hoods, evicting troublemakers from subsidized housing and temporarily disabling cell phone instant messaging services.

Former NYC top cop to be consulted?
Cameron told lawmakers that he would look to cities like Boston for inspiration, and mentioned former Los Angeles, New York and Boston Police Chief William Bratton as a person who could offer advice.

Story: Cameron denies budget cuts caused UK riots
Bratton said in a statement he'd be "pleased and honored" to provide services and counsel in any capacity, adding that he loves London and has worked with British police for nearly 20 years.

A Downing Street spokeswoman denied a British tabloid report that Bratton has been “taken on” by Cameron as an “adviser.”

“The PM might meet with him but I wouldn’t say he’s been taken on in any formal capacity,” she told msnbc.com.

Cameron also said the government, police and intelligence services were looking at whether there should be limits on the use of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook or services like BlackBerry Messenger to spread disorder.

BlackBerry's simple and largely free messaging service was used by rioters to coordinate their activities, Cameron's office said.

Story: UK may disrupt social networks during unrest

Any move to disable the services temporarily is likely to be strongly opposed by civil libertarians.

The scale and ferocity of the rioting — not only in inner-city areas but also in some middle-class suburbs — has battered Britain's image as a civilized and peaceful society.

Reuters, The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.