Staffordshire father jailed for five years for attacking asylum seekers hotel during riots
A Staffordshire father has been jailed for five years for rioting in the summer of 2024 and attacking a hotel housing migrants in Tamworth.
Kyle Taft, 34, pleaded guilty to rioting using unlawful violence on August 4, last year, and was sentenced at Stafford Crown Court yesterday (Wednesday).
The court was shown footage of Taft throwing missiles, shouting in a loud hailer urging others to storm the Holiday Inn hotel and covering his face at the start of the riot with a balaclava.
Taft, a father of two. was working in Stafford at the time of the riots which gripped the country in the wake of the murder of children in Southport. False information spread on the internet that the culprit was an asylum seeker led to hotels housing aslyum seekers were attacked.
Taft originally claimed to be "popping by to see what was going on" but after Staffordshire Police officers pieced together footage from cameras around Tamworth it was clear he was one of the most active participants.
Police were forced to protect the hotel by standing together as rioters pelted them with missiles, bottles and stones. The rioters were successful in setting the hotel ablaze and Taft can be seen throwing a smoking object into the hotel.
