Two rioters have been jailed over violent far-right disorder triggered by the Southport killings.
William Morgan, 69, was convicted over his role in disorder the day after the fatal stabbings of six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar.
Morgan was seen setting fire to bins and damaging a community library and foodbank in Spellow Lane, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
The court heard, the pensioner, who had no previous criminal record, was seen holding a wooden cosh, a small truncheon, “plainly used to be a weapon”.
He told police, who needed three officers to arrest him, he brought it for his own protection.
He was jailed for 32 months.
Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC said: “Your advancing years plainly did not prevent you from playing an active part in a disturbance on County Road.”
Sentencing him on a rare livestream, he added: “I think it is very sad indeed to see someone of your age and character in the dock of a crown court.”
O’Malley, aged 43 and of Cambridge Gardens, in Southport, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and was also sentenced to 32 months.
The court heard O’Malley was at the front of a “baying mob” hurling tins of paint, and other objects at officers, the judge told the court having viewed CCTV.
The judge said “each of you were at the forefront of that awful behaviour” as police vans were set on fire, 50 police officers were injured and bricks were hurled at a local mosque.
He added: “Your actions have disgraced that town and this city.”
He said sentences were designed to deter anyone from repeating the disorder that swept the country last weekend.
They were reduced by a third due to their guilty pleas.
This is a breaking news story… More to follow…
