Pair jailed for over two-and-a-half years each over Southport riots

Two men have been jailed in the first televised sentencing hearings over the riots sparked by the killing of three young girls at a dance studio in Southport.

John O'Malley, 43, was among a group of up to 1,000 people involved in the disorder outside a mosque in the Merseyside town last Tuesday.

More than 50 police officers were injured as protesters hurled bricks, lit fires, and threw bottles a day after Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were killed in an attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

The crowd chanted "this is our f***ing country" and "save our children" as "significant damage" was caused to residential property and the mosque.

"He [O'Malley] was active in and at the heart of the violence," a prosecutor told the court.

O'Malley, from Southport, pleaded guilty to a charge of violent disorder earlier this week and was jailed for 32 months at Liverpool Crown Court in the first on-camera sentencing hearing over the riots.

He was sentenced alongside 69-year-old semi-retired welder William Nelson Morgan, who admitted violent disorder and possession of an offensive weapon - a wooden cosh - in Liverpool on Saturday night.

He was part of a group of around 100 people who set fire to bins, threw bricks, damaged local businesses, and set fire to other buildings in County Road, in Walton.

Morgan, who is from the area and has no previous convictions, was jailed for 32 months.

During the sentencing, the judge said of O'Malley: "You were at the front of what was essentially a baying mob.

"You were at the front and participating enthusiastically."

Of Morgan, the judge said the 69-year-old's "advancing years" did not stop him from playing an "active part" as part of a group "running amok".

When the rioters met the police, the judge said Morgan was "at the front of the mob holding in your hand... a small truncheon".

"I am sure you had [the weapon] with you to cause injury if the opportunity should arise," he said.

The judge said Morgan resisted arrest "with such force" that it took three officers to detain him.

The pair's cases have been fast-tracked through the courts as police, prosecutors, and the government look to send a message to anyone involved in the disorder, with more sentences expected across the country this week.

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