Cameron praises courts for sending a 'tough message' after pair told people to riot on Facebook are jailed for four years



Prime Minister said judge sent a 'very clear message' after Facebook plotters are jailed

Concern as courts appear to abandon sentencing guidelines over riots



More than 1,000 rioters charged in London by police after 1,700 arrests



Judge says rioters should expect to lose their liberty for a 'significant period'

Leading criminal barrister said heavy sentences were a 'knee-jerk reaction'

David Cameron praised the courts for handing down tough sentences after two men who plotted riots on Facebook were jailed for four years.

The Prime Minister said the judge had sent a 'very clear message' that mob violence was wrong as the pair were jailed even though their plans came to nothing.

His comments came after a raft of sentences appeared to show the courts abandoning guidelines and locking up looters and rioters for lengthy terms.

Guilty of trying to incite riots: Jordan Blackshaw, 20, left, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, right, were both jailed for four years for creating riot Facebook pages

Lawyers and campaigners warned today that tough sentences are being handed out to those involved in the riots to appease 'angry Britain'.

Perry Sutcliffe, 22, and Jordan Blackshaw, 20, were locked up for four years even though their Facebook plans were stopped by police who intercepted the messages.

Asked what he thought of the sentence, Mr Cameron said: 'I think it's right that we should allow the courts to make decisions about sentencing.



'They decided in that court to send a tough sentence, send a tough message and I think it's very good that courts are able to do that.'

'Clear messages': David Cameron today defended the courts for handing down tough sentences in rioting cases

He added: 'What happened on our streets was absolutely appalling behaviour and to send a very clear message that it's wrong and won't be tolerated is what the criminal justice system should be doing.'

But today lawyers warned that some 'very bad sentences' are being handed out which risk clogging up courts and overcrowded prisons.



Leading criminal barrister John Cooper QC warned that some sentences were being handed down as a 'knee-jerk reaction', 'responding to the public's anger and the politicians' rhetoric'.



'It's the duty, in my view, of all those who direct sentencing to be independent and not to be influenced by angry Britain,' he said.



'There's no doubt that some individuals will need to be sentenced very firmly, but my concern is that the sentences given in the last week have been disproportionate and somewhat hysterical.



'What's happening here is they're being unduly increased to appease public anger and, as far as the magistrates are concerned, potentially influenced by the views of politicians.'



Two in three people charged in connection with the riots and looting have been remanded in custody, compared with a remand rate of just one in 10 for serious offences in 2010, Ministry of Justice figures showed.



Mr Cooper added: 'The divergence from normal sentencing procedure is also shown in bail.



'They're now in custody being paid for by the taxpayer when two weeks ago they would have been in the community with stringent conditions.'

Yesterday Judge Elgan Edwards made an example of Facebook plotters Sutcliffe and Blackshaw at Chester Crown Court.

The court was told that in separate incidents they set up pages on social networking sites at the height of last week’s violence calling on others to join them in causing trouble in Cheshire.

Unemployed landscape gardener Sutcliffe, who has just one previous conviction, created a Facebook page entitled ‘The Warrington Riots’ and urged 400 friends to join him in creating mayhem.

Petty criminal Blackshaw created an event called ‘Smash Down in Northwich Town’ and invited 147 people to gather at a McDonald’s in the centre of the historic town for a looting spree. Both pages were quickly spotted by the police and taken down before any violence occurred.

Poll Is four years in jail too harsh on the Facebook riot organisers? No Yes Is four years in jail too harsh on the Facebook riot organisers? No 33492 votes

Yes 9166 votes Now share your opinion





But the sentences – which are tougher than many handed out to muggers, sex attackers and killer drivers – are fresh evidence that judges are determined to reflect public demands for the strictest possible punishments.

Judge Edwards, the Recorder of Chester, branded both Blackshaw and Sutcliffe as ‘evil’.

He sentenced Blackshaw, who admitted a charge of arranging an event capable of encouraging the commission of offences including burglary, criminal damage and riot, to four years in a young offenders institution.

Violence: Police officers stand near a barricade of burning and vandalised cars on a street in Hackney, east London, on August 8

COURTS ACCUSED OF HANDING DOWN INCONSISTENT SENTENCES FOR LOOTERS

Olympic ambassador Chelsea Ives, 18, who is accused of burglary and violent disorder has been remanded in custody after being shopped to police by her own mother. Adrienne Ives, 47, (pictured) left Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court in tears after her daughter was told she would not be bailed.

A riot suspect limped into court after being attacked by a police dog as he was arrested. Peter Obike, 20, who denies looting a Sports Direct store in Croydon, was remanded in custody.



Another teenager who told people to riot on Facebook escaped jail after telling a court he was 'only joking'. The 17-year-old from Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk, wrote on his wall 'come on rioters'. He was given a 12 month rehabilitation order and told he must wear an electronic tag. He wrote: 'I think we should start rioting, it's about time the authorities stopped pushing us about.'

A teenager who encouraged people to vandalise a shop on Facebook has avoided facing court altogether.

Joshua Moulinie, 19, posted a message on his wall telling people to loot a Spar in Bream, Gloucestershire. Instead of faving jail he has been told to write an apology.

'It was a very, very blatant joke, I'm not sorry at all for it,' he wrote. 'I'm sorry for the reaction it caused, but not for the action. Also can I make it very clear I never intended to riot? The police are sound. I have no problems whatsoever with them, they didn't even charge me.'



Coach driver David Beswick, 31, of Eccles helped out a man struggling to carry a 37ins TV looted from pawnbrokers Cash Generator in Salford. Beswick, who admitted handling stolen goods, was jailed for 18 months

College student jailed for six months at Camberwell Magistrates Court for stealing a £3.50 case bottle of water from Lidl in Brixton during the riots

Teenage judo star Anthony Lloyd, 17, was warned he faces jail after stealing £66 of cigarettes and jewellery during riots in Manchester. The teenager who was told by the judge he has a 'bright future ahead of him' will be sentenced next month.

University student Pierre Wilkinson, 20, warned he faces a 'substantial' jail sentence if convicted of looting £1,000 worth of electrical goods in Ealing.

Michael Gillespie-Doyle, 18, caught by police before he could steal cigarettes from ransacked Sainsburys jailed for two years in Manchester.

Homeless Stephen Carter, 26, thought his 'luck was in' when he found £500 of clothes and shoes, which had been looted from Liam Gallagher's Manchester branch of Pretty Green jailed for 16 months.

A 17-year-old ballerina who handed herself into police after pictures showed her looting an electrical store has admitted burglary today. The teenager was caught on camera ducking inside a Richer Sounds hi-fi store in Crowydon and walking off with two flatscreen televisions. She was refused bail and will be sentenced later. The televisions have never been recovered.

An A-level student accused of looting aftershave and perfume will get his exam results from behind bars after being being remanded in custody by a judge. Nathan Dempster, who denies burglary, gets his AS level results tomorrow. He was allegedly part of a mob that looted House of Fraser in Croydon.

An ex-policeman's son was jailed today for six months for handling a laptop looted from a Currys store. Christian Sanchez, 20, was shopped by a friend for being in possession of the product looted in Brixton.

Looters who torched an office supply store waited for firefighters to put out the blaze before returning to continue ransacking the stock, a court heard. CCTV captured a group of youths roaming around Staples Superstore before they managed to force the front doors triggering the alarms at 10.11pm on August 8 as riots and looting gripped Croydon in south London. Katie Lovett, 30, Aaron Samuels, 29 and Olufemi Akande deny burglary.

The judge told him: ‘This happened at a time when collective insanity gripped the nation. Your conduct was quite disgraceful. You sought to take advantage of crime elsewhere and transpose it to the peaceful streets of Northwich.’

Sutcliffe admitted a charge of organising an event capable of assisting in the commission of an offence, namely riot.

Judge Edwards told him: ‘You caused a very real panic and you put a very considerable strain on police resources in Warrington.



'You changed your mind and posted a retraction but it does not change the evil of the offences.’

Scotland Yard has now charged more than 1,000 suspects over the rioting which swept through London.

Another judge in Manchester tore up normal sentencing rules and said any adults involved in rioting should expect to go lose their liberty for a ‘significant period’.

Judge Andrew Gilbart, QC, unveiled a sliding scale of tariffs under which riot leaders will be jailed for at least eight years, burglars who broke into shops to steal for between four and seven years, and arsonists between three and seven years.

Even those who claimed they found stolen goods abandoned on the street should be jailed for up to four years, he said. The sentences were longer than for similar offences committed ‘in isolation’ because of the need to send a message about the consequences of such ‘outbursts of criminal behaviour’.

Jailing three men for their part in last week’s mayhem, he accused rioters of undoing Manchester’s efforts to rebuild after the IRA bomb that wrecked the city centre in 1996.

An apparent crackdown by the courts on rioters comes after years of criticism about soft sentences in Britain.

Earlier this month Jason Owen who was jailed over the death of Baby P was released after serving three years of his six-year sentence. His release came just two days after the fourth anniversary of 17-month-old Peter Connelly's death who suffered more than 50 injuries .

Earlier this month former MP Jim Devine, who swindled taxpayers out of £8,385, walked free after serving four months of a 16-month sentence.



Another ex-MP Eric Illsley, who was jailed for 12 months in February for fiddling £14,500 in expenses, was released in May after three months behind bars while David Chaytor served just four out of an 18-month sentence for helping himself to £22,000.

Yet while some courts have been throwing the book at rioters, a college student who urged his 400 Facebook friends to join in with looting escaped jail.



The 17-year-old said that he was 'only joking' when he wrote 'I think we should start rioting, it's about time the authorities stopped pushing us about.

Geoff Dobson, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, said courts should 'pay attention' to sentencing guidelines.



Mr Dobson said: 'The use of imprisonment will be important in marking the severity of offenders that have caused serious harm and damage.

'Sentencing guidelines pay attention to culpability and the degree of harm caused, and provide a framework which the courts must take account of in all cases.



'Courts should have available a full range of sentencing options to ensure people take personal responsibility for making amends.

'Restorative justice gives priority to the needs of victims while facing offenders with the harm they have caused and allowing them to take the practical steps to repair the damage.'



The tough prison sentences handed down for attempting to organise riots were welcomed by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

'We need to understand that people for a while thought that this was a crime without consequence,' he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.



'We cannot have people being frightened in their beds, frightened in their own homes, for their public safety.

'That's why these kind of exemplary sentences are necessary and I think the public would be rightly alarmed if that incitement to riot got off with just a slap on the wrist.'

Robust sentences for looters were defended by former Tory leader Michael Howard in the face of claims from former prison service boss Martin Narey that courts were handing out ‘savage’ punishments.

But offenders who were complaining about their punishments ‘should have thought of the consequences of their actions’, Lord Howard told Radio 4.



Lord Howard was responding to comments from Mr Narey, who said a ‘thirst for retribution’ meant young people who had committed petty crimes and were on the fringes of the riots had been punished too severely.



Instead, many should have been cautioned and told they ‘mustn’t get in trouble again’, he said.

Lord Howard said the punishments were ‘exactly what I would expect’ and were necessary to maintain public confidence in the justice system. ‘The courts don’t operate in a vacuum and shouldn’t operate in a vacuum,’ he said.

‘What we saw last week was an absolutely appalling outbreak of violent behaviour, and it’s absolutely right that those who are responsible for that violent behaviour should be dealt with appropriately and that’s what the courts are doing.

An spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: 'Magistrates and judges are independent of Government. Their sentencing decisions are based on the individual circumstances of each case and offender.

'That is why different offenders may be given different sentences for what might appear to be similar crimes. To provide a consistent base for these decisions an independent body of experts, the Sentencing Council, set guidelines for them to use.

'These provide a range of sentences that could be given for particular types of crime, including cases of theft, burglary or robbery.'

Strong arm of the law: Rioters are being given severe sentences