Seven men have been jailed following a protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers.
Thomas Mills, 47, Brian McPadden, 61, Paul Lafferty, 42, and Jonjo O’Donoghue, 21, were found guilty of violent disorder at Liverpool Crown Court in January after the demonstration outside the Suites Hotel in Knowsley, Merseyside, on February 10 last year.
The four defendants had all admitted being present at the demonstration but denied being part of the violence which resulted in three police officers being injured and a police van being set alight.
A fifth defendant, Daniel Fulham, 39, who told the court he was in the area walking his Jack Russell dog, was found not guilty of violent disorder and of a lesser offence of abusive or threatening behaviour with intent to provoke violence.
The four defendants, all from Kirkby, Merseyside, apart from O’Donoghue, who is from Liverpool city centre, were part of a larger group who threw missiles and paving slabs at police and set fire to a police van during the incident, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
