Couple in asylum hotel riot leave jail after month

A couple who were part of a mob outside a hotel housing asylum seekers during the summer's riots have been freed after serving a month in jail.

Michelle Jibson, 45, and her partner Tracy Pearson, 53, both of Kingsbridge Road, Manchester, had been in custody since they both admitted violent disorder at Manchester Magistrates' Court on 12 August.

They were part of a mob outside the Holiday Inn in Newton Heath in Manchester on 31 July.

Bottles, bricks and eggs were thrown at the hotel by the crowd outside as riot police struggled to keep order following the widespread riots in the aftermath of the deaths of three children who were stabbed in Southport.

Jibson had been shoved by a police officer trying to disperse the crowd and reacted by shoving him back.

Manchester Crown Court heard Pearson had "expressed some trenchant, distasteful views, very loudly".

Judge Patrick Field KC said he accepted Pearson had not acted violently herself, but added: "This level of intolerance was deeply shaming to everybody involved.

"You were emboldened to do what you did.

"This case illustrates, however, how important it is to think carefully before accepting all you have read online.

"The online world, as you now know is full of traps for the unwary."

He told Jibson she had reacted inappropriately to a police officer trying to move her on from outside the hotel.

But he said he accepted both women had not acted maliciously and in the last month, custody had meant they had been apart for the first time in their 25-year relationship.

Judge Field said: "I am of the view you both have learned a particularly hard lesson."

He gave Pearson a six-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months.

Jibson was given an 18-month community order, with both women ordered to carry out 15 days of rehabilitation activity.

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