Fitzroy Thomas, a 43-year-old organic chef, was accused with his brother Ronald, 47, of smashing up a branch of the Nando's chicken restaurant chain in Clapham, south London, the Times daily reported. Pleaded guilty ... Primary school assistant Alexis Bailey covers his face from the media as he leaves court. Credit:Reuters The pair pleaded not guilty in a London magistrates court and were remanded in custody, the paper said. Nan Asante, 19, who recently started work as a steward at an outdoor opera venue in the upmarket London district of Holland Park, reportedly pleaded not guilty to looting a supermarket in the capital. The Telegraph reported that an 11-year-old boy, who cannot be named, was chased by his aunt and mother down the street and dragged back by the scruff of his neck after he appeared in court. He was bailed over charges of looting a Debenhams department store in Romford, Essex.

He had been in custody for two days and had been arrested with a mob of 20 other children. The boy admitted stealing a waste bin worth £50 ($75). Shame file ... London's Daily Telegraph has published pictures of the accused, including, from left, the 11-year-old boy, Richard Myles-Palmer and Alexis Bailey, Another alleged rioter was a student at Essex University near London, Banye Kanon, 20, according to reports, which said other suspects included a youth worker and a forklift truck driver. Laura Johnson, the 19-year-old daughter of a successful company director who lives in a sprawling Kent farmhouse, was accused of looting electrical goods worth £5000. Looters rampage through a convenience store in Hackney. Credit:Reuters

Johnson, The Telegraph reported, is an English and Italian undergraduate at the University of Exeter and had previously attended the fourth-best state school in the country. Her parents, Robert and Lindsay, run Avongate, a direct marketing company, but Mr Johnson was also a director of a company that took over the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport newspapers in 2007. A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: "I just wouldn't expect someone from round here to be accused of this." Looters carry boxes out of a home cinema shop in central Birmingham. Alexis Bailey, 31, a worker at a primary school, admitted being part of a mob that tried to loot an electrical shop in Croydon, The Telegraph reported. Bailey left court with a newspaper over his face, a headline about "copycat cretins" covering his eyes, and walked into a lamp post.

Wanted ... A young man pictured in High Street, Croydon. Credit:The Met Another man, who The Telegraph reported had a substantial criminal record, adhered more to Prime Minister David Cameron's lament about "sickness" in British society. Richard Myles-Palmer was found wheeling a shopping trolley full of stolen power tools through south London. The apparent involvement of such people in the riots will only deepen the debate over who and what was behind the outbreak of violence. As The Guardian newspaper pointed out: "There is no simple answer to the question: who are the rioters?" While many were young men from poor areas, the rioters came from different racial groups, women also joined in and the ages of those involved ranged from their teens to their 40s, said the paper.

Many commentators saw an element of opportunism, as police lost control of the streets to hooded gangs, others helped themselves from shops after windows were smashed. But gangs of hooded youths from deprived areas were undoubtedly some of the main participants in the trouble, leading some to conclude that society's failure to integrate poor communities was a long-term cause of the riots. In Manchester, where riots broke out on Tuesday, gangs in their late teens and 20s, often riding bicycles, roamed the streets until late into the night, smashing shops and looting, AFP journalists reported. "There's a body of very angry young people out there, young people who have been marginalised systematically within society for decades," education expert Professor Gus John said. "I think, to a large extent, it's an outpouring of pent-up anger against the police, but also total frustration with their situation as people see no future for themselves."

Some, however, rejected arguments that social conditions played a role and simply demanded a swift crackdown on the perpetrators. The Sun tabloid, Britain's biggest-selling daily, asked readers to "shop a moron" on a front page emblazoned with CCTV images of alleged rioters. "This unrest isn't about 'wider social issues' or poverty," youth and community worker Shaun Bailey, a former parliamentary candidate for the ruling Conservative Party, wrote in the paper. Loading "It is about robbery. And people's businesses, homes and livelihoods are being destroyed in the process."

- with AFP