A 32-year-old who was the first in the UK to admit riot after playing a leading role in serious violence in Sunderland during last month’s widespread disorder has been jailed for four years and four months.
Draped in a Union flag, masked, swigging lager and filming the trouble on his phone, Kieran Usher was at the forefront of those attacking police lines on August 2, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
He was shown on police footage beckoning others forward to join him in confronting police after a march through the city centre turned violent.
Usher, from Bramwell Road, Hendon, Sunderland, was shown throwing a missile from point blank range at police who were behind riot shields.
Michael Bunch, prosecuting, said Usher threw a number of missiles and played a leading role in the disorder, “encouraging others, beckoning them on, filming their activities”.
The court heard a statement from Northumbria Police Chief Constable Vanessa Jardine which said officers were met with “serious and sustained” levels of violence and were attacked with bricks, concrete blocks and scaffolding poles.
Sophie Allinson Howells, defending, said Usher had learning difficulties from childhood, had “attached little value to himself”, was without strong political beliefs and was not linked to the far-right movement.
She said: “Tying the Union Jack to himself is best described as an attempt to fit in with a bunch of peers who were there.”
Usher had initially attended the protest with a friend who left when trouble began, and he should have also left, but remained in an attempt to impress others he did not even know, she said.
Ms Allinson Howells said Usher attended a police interview without legal representation on August 15 and made full admissions to officers and pleaded guilty to riot at the first opportunity – becoming the first in the UK to do so following the recent trouble.
Judge Tim Gittins said Usher and others “participated in an orgy of mindless violence and disorder”, and the police costs alone were an estimated £1 million.
He said: “Right-thinking members of the community in which you live were left shocked, distressed and in fear.”
The judge told Usher, who was appearing by video-link from Durham Prison, he was “at the forefront of a crowd” made from various groups who gathered in Keel Square that afternoon.
Judge Gittins said: “From the outset, you were drinking and using your phone to film.
“You then draped yourself in a Union flag – your acts while carrying that flag bring shame to it.”
The judge accepted Usher felt a degree of shame and remorse, demonstrated by his immediate guilty plea.
Christopher Atkinson, head of the complex casework Unit for CPS North East, said: “Kieran Usher played a pivotal role in the events that last month blighted the city of Sunderland.
“The significant sentence that he now faces appropriately reflects the severity of his actions, which saw him co-ordinate with at least 20 other people to rain missiles on to attending police officers in the course of their duties to protect the public.”
Usher was the first adult to be charged with riot, following a 15-year-old boy, also from Sunderland, having had his violent disorder charge upgraded to riot.
On August 2, hundreds gathered for an unruly march through Sunderland city centre which splintered off towards a mosque where officers in riot gear, who were protecting it, came under sustained attack.
Trouble continued late into the evening, with more attacks on police in the city centre, including having beer barrels thrown at them and fire extinguishers set off in their faces.
A car was set on fire, a vape shop was looted and a Citizens’ Advice Bureau was torched during an apparent attack on a police hub.
Yobs also tried to rip out gravestones from Sunderland’s historic Minster to break up and use as missiles.
