A rioter who handed himself in to police after his picture was published in the Express & Star has been locked up for 15 months.

Thom Palmer made an obscene hand gesture at officers and threw a stone during the summer riots in Wolverhampton city centre. His photograph was published on August 12.

Mr Stephen Cadwaladr , defending, said: “He went to the police station with a copy of the paper, pointed out the photograph and told officers ‘I am dreadfully sorry but that is me’.

“He was a man in a hood with not all his face was visible and so may not otherwise have been identified.

“He then admitted making the gesture and throwing a stone, the second action of which was not shown in the photograph. It was an almost unprecedented degree of openness, honesty and remorse.”

Prosecutor Mr Geoffrey Dann said: “Had this young man not attended the police station he may very well have remained undetected.”

Apprentice bricklayer Palmer, from Gainford Close, Pendeford, who is now aged 18 but was 17 at the time of the offence on August 9, admitted violent disorder. He said he had not thrown the stone at anything in particular.

He was sent to a young offenders institution by Judge Michael Challinor, who told him: “You joined the mob. There is clearly much good in you but people must learn that if they join in this very serious kind of public disorder, they are going to lose their liberty.”

See also – Wolverhampton riots: Help sought to find last suspects

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By John Scott