TWELVE men and two youths have been detained for a total of more than 70 years for their part in riots during which a police station was fire-bombed.
Curtis Dejean, 19; Lance Francis, 25; Reiss Wilson, 21; Harrison McCalla, 21; Antany Edwards, 24; Ashton Alexander, 19; Ricardo Cotteral, 23; Callum Powell, 20; Shaudrie Robinson, 22; Gregory Coleman, Lucas Stapleton, both 18; and Bobby Muers, 18; along with 16-year-olds Kaiden Howell and Marcus Wynter, were all sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court.
Each played a role in disturbances in Nottingham city centre last August, during which Canning Circus police station was fire-bombed.
Three police officers and three police community support officers were inside when nine lighted petrol bombs were thrown.
Ten of the men were sentenced for rioting while four others, including the two youths who the judge allowed to be named by the media, were sentenced for violent disorder.
Sentencing the 14, Judge Michael Stoke QC, Recorder of Nottingham, said: “There can be no doubt about it: this was a mob violence of an extreme nature. In short, a calculated defiance of the criminal law and a deliberate attack on the police.”
The six-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court heard witnesses describe the scene as a “war zone”, seeing petrol bombs thrown at the police station during an “organised and planned attack”. Petrol bombs were thrown at other passing vehicles, including a bus.
Commenting on the use of petrol bombs, Judge Stokes said: “The use of such unstable weapons in a riot situation, aimed as they were principally at a police station and those inside it, created a substantial risk to life and limb.”
Two other youths, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will be sentenced at a later date for their role in the disorder.