The contrast could not have been greater.
Across the road a four-piece brass band played Congratulations as a bride and groom emerged into the summer sunshine from Hull’s historic Guildhall after their wedding. Meanwhile, inside Court One in the city’s combined courts complex the mood was sombre. Judge John Thackray KC was about to hand down the longest prison sentences yet seen in relation to the rioting which erupted around the country on 3 August.
As six defendants looked on from the dock, he chose his words carefully. “The offences which took place in a city proudly twinned with Freetown in Sierra Leone were effectively 12 hours of racist hate-fuelled mob violence.”
Hull’s proud history of anti-slavery
Thackray’s nod to history was a very deliberate one. Back in 1979 Hull became the first city in the UK to officially twin with an African city, linking up with Sierra Leone’s capital. The twinning commemorated the legacy of Hull’s most famous son William Wilberforce and his campaign to abolish slavery in the British Empire.
Now a museum and a popular tourist attraction, Wilberforce’s birthplace lies just a short walk from the court. Sitting in judgement on a series of shocking offences committed against people simply because of their skin colour, Thackray appeared visibly angry at the thought of Hull’s reputation at home and abroad being trashed in much the same way as several city centre shops had been looted a fortnight earlier.
Far-right riots fuelled by racism
On the day in question, an anti-immigration rally organised by far-right activists spuriously triggered by the killing of three young girls at a dance class in Southport had erupted into violence, initially aimed at the police and then a city hotel housing asylum seekers before spreading to a nearby neighbourhood. As looters rampaged along one of the main shopping streets, an emergency closure of was enacted at the city’s railway and bus station on safety grounds. Overall, police estimated up to 400 people had been involved in the disorder.
Time and again Thackray interrupted the submissions of defence barristers to remind the court of the most horrific incidents from that grim day. One featured a family with young children cowering in fear inside a garage while a mob outside attempted to smash their way inside amid cries of “Kill them” as dense smoke from a burning pile of tyres poured through a hastily lowered shutter.
Criminals David Wilkinson and John Honey
Another saw three Romanian men flee from a car after it was surrounded by an angry group of around 30 people heading towards a nearby mosque, among them David Wilkinson and John Honey. They had driven into a side street to avoid a pile of pallets which had been set alight on a main road only to confronted by the mob coming in their direction.
In film footage screened in court, Wilkinson could be seen wielding a chain at the driver before using it to smash the car’s windscreen. Earlier, he was filmed attacking police officers elsewhere in the city centre and spitting at them.
He was jailed for six years.
Honey – easily identifiable in numerous film clips thanks to a distinctive England rugby shirt emblazoned with a large St George’s cross – had been, in the words of the judge, “front and centre in everything”. He joined in the attack on the car, yanking open the passenger door after taking a kick at the vehicle. He also threw missiles at the police and was filmed smashing the window of a phone shop before clambering inside. He was also filmed emerging from a looted Lush store carrying pile of stolen gift boxes which he started handing out to people in the crowd, wishing them “Merry Christmas” as he did so.
What leads someone to commit such offences?
Thackray took account of lengthy mitigation about Honey being diagnosed as autistic as a teenager but still jailed him for four years and eight months. Both sentences reflected the racially aggravated criminal damage charges admitted by both men. Wilkinson had also pleaded guilty to attempted arson after being filmed trying but failing to set alight a wheelie bin dumped on the pile of tyres outside the garage.
The other four men in the dock were all jailed for violent disorder. One had hurled a traffic cone at police, another had lobbed several beer bottles while a 41-year-old with 49 previous offences on his record had been bitten on the leg by a police dog and appeared in court on crutches as a result.
In each case, the personal background stories were told.
All but one had previous criminal convictions. Employment had been suddenly terminated for some. Family life was about to be severely disrupted. Young children would soon be without a father figure in the house. In the circumstances, some households would face a struggle to keep a roof over their heads.
In the public gallery, family and friends watched attentively. A young girl smiled and blew silent kisses to one of the defendants sat in the dock behind a glass screen. When he was jailed for two years she started sobbing.
Riot, not disorder
Earlier in the week, Thackray had made national headlines by asking prosecutors to consider charging offenders who played a central role in the recent disorder with rioting, which carries maximum 10-year sentence. In a similar vein, before dealing with a seventh case he stood proceedings down to find out why the man had only been charged with burglary in one of the looted shops and not the more serious offence of violent disorder.
Others set to appear before Hull’s most senior judge in the coming weeks can expect much of the same.
Within the parameters of the national sentencing guidelines there is likely to be little leniency. Had he been here to witness it, there’s little doubt that Wilberforce’s himself would have approved of such a stance.
Justice is being carried out quickly and efficiently in Hull. The deeper wounds caused by racial hatred will take much longer to heal.
More from Angus Young:
- Hull, civilisation returns after a day of rioting
- Seagrass sculpture unveiled on the waterfront in Hull
- First in-depth analysis published on the State of Yorkshire’s Nature
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
