A man pictured looting Lush while clutching some cookies from Greggs has been handed the second largest jail sentence of any far-right rioter so far.
John Honey, 25, helped attack a BMW carrying three Romanian men, targeted a garage leaving nine vehicles damaged, and pushed bins at police lines during the disorder on August 3.
Honey pleaded guilty to violent disorder and three charges of burglary at Lush, an O2 store and Shoezone.
He also admitted racially aggravated criminal damage over the BMW incident, and damaging nine other cars during an attack on a garage.
A sentencing hearing earlier in the week was adjourned after a prison probation officer said Honey had asked him ‘if he wanted his autograph because he was famous’, which the court heard could have undermined Honey’s claim of being ‘genuinely remorseful’.
But after hearing that Honey had developmental issues due to his ‘difficult start in life’, Judge John Thackray KC said his alleged comment ‘does not have the significance it would otherwise have’.
The judge told Honey: ‘I’m not going to hear any evidence about comments which you may or may not have made in the prison setting.
‘I’m not going to give them any relevance. If your defence say that there is now genuine remorse, I’ll accept that submission.’
A victim impact statement from the manager of the Lush store said the incident had ‘massively impacted’ the staff, some of whom ‘cannot bring themselves to come back to the store as they are frightened it will happen again’.
Wilkinson was jailed for six years for violent disorder, attempted arson and racially aggravated criminal damage after playing a ‘prominent role’ in the riots.
The court heard at various points during the day Wilkinson spat, threw missiles and pushed wheelie bins at a police line. He appeared to be holding nunchucks at one point, it was said.
During the attack on the garage Honey also took part in, Wilkinson was seen trying to set fire to a bin on top of a pile of tyres which were already alight, sending plumes of black smoke through the shutters of the workshop, where a group of people were sheltering.
Four men who took part in a barrage of verbal and physical abuse towards police during the riots were also locked up at the same court.
Steven Love, 41, who hurled an empty bin at a protective line of officers, was sentenced to 40 months in prison as a judge told him he was “lucky not to be charged with riot” due to his central role in the disorder.
HGV driver and ‘family man’ John Nunan, 36, was jailed for two years for ‘aggressively’ confronting police, throwing missiles including a glass bottle, and helping push a wheelie bin at officers.
Travis Whitelock, 23, was jailed for two years after also playing a ‘prominent role’ that included pushing a street litter bin onto a burning pile of rubbish and shoving a large wheelie bin at police.
Corey Holloway, 20, was jailed for 18 months after throwing a traffic cone at police and behaving in a ‘violent and aggressive manner’.
The four men pleaded guilty to violent disorder.
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