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A grandfather who was jailed over rioting outside a hotel housing asylum seekers has died in prison.Â
Peter Lynch was serving two years and eight months behind bars after he pleaded guilty to being part of a mob which gathered outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on 4 August.
Body-worn camera footage, played to Sheffield Crown Court in the summer, showed 61-year-old Lynch screaming “you are protecting people who are killing our kids and raping them” and “scum” at police with riot shields.
Confirming his death on Monday, a Prison Service spokesperson said: “HMP Moorland prisoner Peter Lynch died on 19 October 2023.
“As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”
At his sentencing on 22 August, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC heard how Lynch suffered from diabetes, thyroid issues, angina and had recently had a heart attack.
He was one of more than 50 men jailed at Sheffield Crown Court following the Rotherham rioting, which left 64 police officers injured, as well as four dogs and a horse.
It was part of the wave of violent disorder which took places in towns and cities across the UK over the summer following the Southport stabbings that left three girls dead.
Read more:
Riots and the far right: The global network behind the violence
Inside the simmering anger after the riots
Barbed wire and looking over your shoulder: Residents fearful after riots
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During the Rotherham riot, about 240 asylum seekers were trapped in the upper floors of the hotel, while staff said they had to barricade themselves into a panic room on the lower levels, fearing for their lives.
Lynch was photographed carrying a placard that called some people corrupt and the court heard he was at the front of the mob.
UK riots: Asylum seekers still wary
Lynch’s defence lawyer Ian West told the court the placard was a “general conspiracy theory against anyone and any form of authority”.
Judge Richardson told Lynch that although he did not attack a police officer, “what you did was encourage by your conduct others to behave violently and you were part of this mob”.
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Lynch, from Wath-upon-Dearne, Rotherham, had been married for 36 years and has four adult children and three grandchildren.
He was working in the packing industry but was recently made unemployed, the court heard.
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