Girl, 16, threw rocks at police ‘to impress boy’ she followed to a riot

Sentencing would have been much harsher if she had been a couple of years older, judge tells ‘remorseful’ teenager

A 16-year-old girl threw rocks at police after she followed a boy she had a crush on to a riot to try to impress him, her lawyer told a court.
The teenager, who cannot be named, was sentenced at Sheffield Youth Court on Wednesday for her part in the disorder outside the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Rotherham, which was housing about 240 asylum seekers when it was besieged on Aug 4.
A district judge was told how the girl was part of a group on the periphery of the disorder and was caught on body-worn camera footage throwing a stone or piece of rubble at riot police.
Helen White, defending, told the court her client “followed a boy to the scene” after they saw what was happening on social media.
Ms White said: “She wanted to impress him. She had a bit of a crush on this young man.”
But, when they arrived outside the hotel, the defendant “got caught up”, the solicitor said.
The court heard that after she was arrested, the girl told police it was an “act of stupidity”.
Ms White said her client had already been punished by her mother, who went to the scene to “chastise” her daughter for being there.
She said: “She simply got caught up and committed a criminal act which she now bitterly regrets.
“Immaturity certainly played a huge part here. To say that she is remorseful for her actions would be an understatement.
“She was lucky that none of the missiles did in fact connect with any of the police.”
Asked if she wanted to say anything, the girl told District Judge Marcus Waite: “Just that I’m not going to do anything like that again.”
The judge heard how the girl, who is from the Doncaster area, is a college student with a part-time job. She admitted violent disorder at a previous hearing and had no previous convictions.
Judge Waite imposed a 12-month intensive referral order and told her to pay £111 in costs and surcharges, payable at £5 a week.
He told her that if she was a couple of years older, she would have had a much more severe sentencing.
He said: “There are teenagers who have gone to prison for years for being involved in this riot.”
The court heard how the girl’s actions were part of the mob violence outside the hotel which lasted for hours and left more than 50 police officers injured, as well as four dogs and a horse.
At one point, the rioters broke into the hotel and tried to set the building alight as staff and residents barricaded themselves in, fearing they would die, the courts have heard.
More than 70 people have now been sentenced for their part in this incident.