Levis Fishlock: Man gets joint-longest sentence for summer riots

A man who tried to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers has been jailed for nine years, the joint-longest prison sentence in connection with the UK’s summer of riots.

Levi Fishlock smashed windows and stoked a flaming bin at the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham, during a spate of disorder on 4 August.

Fishlock, 31, of Sheffield Road, Barnsley, initially denied violent disorder and arson with intent to endanger life but later pleaded guilty to the charges.

Jailing him, the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, said: “This is one of the worst cases of its kind stemming from the Rotherham disorder.”

Fisklock’s sentence, which also includes a five-year licence period after he is released from jail, is the same as that of Thomas Birley, who was also part of the mob, some of whom attempted to torch the hotel in South Yorkshire.