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Six inmates guilty of HMP Birmingham riot

AFP/GETTY HMP BirminghamAFP/GETTY
Disorder broke out at HMP Birmingham in December 2016

Six inmates have been convicted over a prison riot that that lasted for 15 hours.

Luke Mansell, 24, and John Burton, 39, were found guilty of taking part in the disorder at HMP Birmingham on 16 December 2016.

Four other men - Ross Wilkinson, Robert Smith, Nathan Weston and Grant Samed - admitted a charge of prison mutiny.

Sentencing for all six men is expected to take place at Birmingham Crown Court next week.

Mansell and Burton had denied prison mutiny but were convicted following a trial lasting nearly three weeks.

PA Riot police outside HMP BirminghamPA
Four wings of HMP Birmingham were taken over in a 15-hour disturbance, Birmingham Crown Court heard

Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court failed to reach verdicts on a charge of mutiny for two others, Carl Brookes, 33, and Ross Queen, 30.

Brookes and Queen had previously admitted a separate charge of taking an unauthorised photo in jail.

The riot spread to four wings and 500 prisoners were let out of their cells.

The court heard prisoners stripped, wielded table legs and threw TVs out of windows.

Inmates were convicted over the prison riot on Friday

Order was only restored at the G4S-run jail after hundreds of specially-trained "Tornado" team prison officers were drafted in.

Det Insp Caroline Corfield, of West Midlands Police, said: "It was a very serious incident. It's frightening even to watch on the recorded footage that I have seen, so I can't imagine how it would have felt to be involved on that day.

"When the disorder spread to the other wings and exercise yard, a team of prison officers held the gate to stop the disorder from spreading even further into the prison.

"Those officers... had paint thrown over them, fire hoses turned on them and they endured this for hours.

"I have no doubt that the action of those officers stopped this disorder from spreading even further."