Man described by judge as the ‘least involved’ in riot jailed for a year

> A former soldier described by a judge as the “least involved” person he had dealt with over the riots was jailed for 12 months.

> Gary Harkness was present at a riot that broke out in Plymouth on Aug 5 as violence swept the country following the Southport stabbings in which three children were killed.

> Body-worn camera footage played to Plymouth Crown Court on Tuesday showed the 51-year-old pushing a police riot shield and being “prolifically vocal” as he tried to help someone on the ground during a riot in the port city last Monday.

> He was also said to have made lewd gestures and been heard swearing.

> However, after watching a portion of the video evidence, the judge halted the hearing, saying that people were entitled to protests and to throw their arms around, “but as long as they’re not using threatening behaviour, it’s not an offence, is it?”

> Following an adjournment, a third video was shown in which Harkness accepted he had made the comments “f— off, come on”, pushed a riot shield and waved his arms.

> The court heard that Harkness, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, was “steaming drunk” after downing up to 18 cans and three quarters of a bottle of tequila with a friend before going into the city.

> Judge Robert Linford described Harkness as being the “least involved” in terms of “direct violence” to come before him, and acknowledged that he was not associated with either “faction”, nor had he attended the riot “with the intention of starting or being involved in any trouble”.

> But handing down his sentence to Harkness, who pleaded guilty to violent disorder at an earlier hearing, Judge Linford said: “Of the people I have thus far sentenced, you are the person who provides me with the most difficulty because it cannot be levelled at you that you hit anyone, neither have you thrown anything, neither is it said that you spat at anybody.

> “But it is accepted by you that you were a party to this disorder and I have to sentence you on that basis, and you know that anyone party to it has to receive a custodial sentence.”

Jailing a former soldier with PTSD for a year for the crime of having a different opinion on immigration than the elite and upperclass of society. 🤡 Effectively the imprisonment of people who oppose the government. This is Modern Britain – and it’s a fucking disgrace.

The climate protestors got 5 years for merely plotting to block a road in peaceful demonstration.

The protest laws brought in by the Tories were a disgrace and it’s disappointing to see them enforced.

Nevertheless, getting “steaming drunk” and confronting police at a violent riot is a particularly stupid thing to do – and he pled guilty to violent disorder.

What are the sentencing guidelines like for this sort of thing?

Seems like they’re going to need to be reviewed if our prisons are already full

Remember guys, never trust any party again after all this authoritarian garbage. None of them want any dissent or protests against them. They can continue sending their goon squads after people for Facebook posts but then cry pauper that the police have low numbers and no funding so oops we can’t tackle real crime and oh prisons are too full so we have to release dangerous people early. Fuck this country. We should do our best to get our finances up and leave.

I’m pretty sure I was less involved in these riots than he was, I was sit in my garden about 10 miles away at the time.