The trouble began after the stabbing of three young girls in Southport last week and amid false rumours that the attacker was an asylum seeker who had arrived by boat.
A list of immigration solicitors’ firms and advice agencies was shared in chat groups as possible targets, with the message telling people to “mask up”.
The prime minister and senior police officers have warned the full force of the law will be used to swiftly punish any offenders.
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Bristol shops boarded up ahead of protests
Image: Parliament Road in Middlesbrough on Sunday 4 August. Pic: PA
They include Derek Drummond, 58, who has been jailed for three years after admitting violent disorder and punching a police officer in the face in Southport.
Liam Riley, 41, is another who’s been sentenced.
He admitted violent disorder and a racially aggravated public order offence in Liverpool city centre on Saturday night.
Riley, who has no previous convictions but two previous cautions, was jailed for 20 months.
Declan Geiran, 29, also admitted being involved in the violence in Liverpool, as well as sending threatening messages to a woman.
A court heard he was caught on CCTV setting a police van on fire before sitting down and looking “casually” back at what he had done.
He was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
Image: Derek Drummond, Liam Riley and Declan Geiran are among those sentenced. Pic: CPS
The unrest has also led to a row between Tory leadership rivals after Robert Jenrick told Sky News people shouting Allahu Akbar on the streets should be “immediately arrested”.
Mel Stride said “wholesale criminalisation” of the words – used by many Muslims every day – was “unwise and insensitive”.
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Former Tory Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad said the comments fuelled Islamophobia “at a time when communal tensions are high”.
Following the backlash, Mr Jenrick posted a video on X of a march through Bolton with people chanting the phrase.
He said: “‘Allahu Akbar’ is spoken peacefully and spiritually by millions of British Muslims in their daily lives. But the aggressive chanting below is intimidatory and threatening.”
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