Businessman Ricky Hardman was seen kicking a police van during the riot outside a Rotherham hotel housing asylum seekers as similar cases of unrest erupted across the country. A haulage business owner has been caged for two years and eight months after he was pictured in a national newspaper brandishing a plank of wood amid the horrendous riot at a Rotherham hotel housing asylum seekers. Thug Ricky Hardman was arrested after a snap of him near the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers on Sunday August 4 was published by the Daily Telegraph, a judge was told on Monday. A clip was also played at Sheffield Crown Court showing the 41-year-old defendant was part of the group attacking a police dog van during the violence outside the hotel. In the video Hardman was seen kicking out at the police van, which was being prevented from moving by people lying in front if it. He could then be seen as part of a group of about six men who violently rocked the vehicle before it managed to drive away. The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, told Hardman the “major civil disorder” was “perpetrated by an ignorant mob of which you were a part”.
via mirror: Rioter named ‘Hardman’ who brandished plank of wood outside asylum seeker hotel jailed