Man in northern England sentenced to 9 years in prison for arson with intent to endanger life

Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A man who helped fuel a fire outside a hotel housing more than 200 asylum-seekers has been sentenced to nine years in prison, the longest punishment handed to those involved in last month’s wave of far-right riots in England. At the sentencing hearing Friday at Sheffield Crown Court in the north of England, painter and decorator Thomas Birley pleaded guilty to the charge of arson with the intent to endanger life at the Holiday Inn Express hotel in nearby Rotherham. Judge Jeremy Richardson told Birley, 27, that his case was “unquestionably” one of the most serious of the dozens he has dealt with in the past month in relation to the rioting outside the hotel on Aug. 4.