You're a disgrace: As clamour grows to strip rioters of benefits and council homes, judge jailing looters captures the anger of the nation

Magistrates dish out tough sentences to 'despicable, contemptible yobbos'

Prison population set to hit record high as thugs are jailed

For four nights they went on the rampage, inflicting misery on decent people and showing brazen contempt for the law.

Yesterday, society turned the tables and exacted its retribution. Across the country, hundreds of suspects were hauled before the courts and handed stiff punishments by outraged judges.

Their wrath was matched by politicians, police and the public who made it clear that the anarchy and mindless criminality would not be tolerated.



Criminals: A rogues' gallery of some of the rioters who have now been convicted

In Manchester, ransacked by a mob on Tuesday night, judge Alan Berg spoke for millions of law-abiding people when two looters were brought before him.



He said: ‘You have all the benefits in this country which individuals in other countries would pray for, and you bring shame and disgrace upon this country as a whole, and upon yourselves and your families.

‘You do nothing constructive. Everything you do is destructive. This was intolerable lawlessness and no civilised society should be expected to put up with it.’



Speaking for the nation: District Judge Alan Berg

As he spoke:

David Cameron told Parliament police would be given new powers to tear masks and hoods from suspected criminals;

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith ordered plans to be drawn up to remove benefits from rioters after a public petition calling for the measure attracted more than 100,000 signatures;

Council leaders insisted they would strip council housing from anyone convicted over the riots;

‘Zero tolerance’ New York police chief Bill Bratton was appointed an adviser to the Prime Minister;

The prison population is set to hit a record high today;

Riot police smashed into the homes of suspected looters with one senior officer promising: ‘We’re going to come and get them, every single one.’

The Manchester judge unleashed a furious tirade at carer Dayle Blinkhorn, 23, and trainee plasterer John Millbanks, 26, after they claimed they had simply found an abandoned £4,500 widescreen television in the street.

While they were remanded in custody after admitting handling stolen goods, he handed others some tough instant justice.



Contemptible: Looters carry boxes out of a home cinema shop in central Birmingham. Many of those who ran riot this week are now paying for their crimes

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He jailed a man for six months who was caught heading for the scene of the riots carrying a balaclava and an empty bin bag.



Jordan Kelly, 20, said he went to ‘gather’ trainers and other goods lying in the street the day after shops were looted.



Yesterday Judge Berg told him: ‘Decent members of society are sick and tired of people taking advantage of a situation like there has been in Manchester over the last days. I need to make an example of you.’



The judge told Daniel Bell, who was caught leaving a looted electrical store with a Macmillan Cancer charity box containing £50: ‘Your crime is probably the most despicable and contemptible I have had to deal with all day. It is breathtakingly wicked.’

Bell, 30, from Stockport, pleaded guilty to burglary and theft.

You're nicked: Chief Superintendent Simon Ovens, left, commander of the Westminster Burglary Squad, and another officer, apprehend a suspect following a police raid

In Nottingham another district judge, Tim Devas, asked one criminal who obstructed police from making arrests: ‘Don’t you feel ashamed that you are now counted among the hundreds of yobbos arrested and now considered as scum by the public?’

On breakfast television yesterday morning, a senior Metropolitan Police officer, deputy assistant commissioner Stephen Kavanagh, said officers were worried that some rioters were getting soft sentences.

But as the day went on, a string of cases revealed how judges and magistrates were giving short shrift to the excuses of looters.

In the public eye: Press photographers take pictures of a prison van as it leaves Westminster Magistrates Court in London yesterday. Hundreds of suspected rioters were in court following days of violent riots

Dental nurse Shereece Ashley, 20, who left her baby at home when she went to loot a Tesco store, was jailed for three months at Camberwell Green magistrates’ court.

Engineering student Nicolas Robinson, 23, who stole six bottles of water worth £3.50, was sentenced to six months.

Across the country around 1,400 people have been arrested over the riots.

Ram raid: This police officer takes a mighty swing at a suspect's door in Westminster, splintering it apart as officers go in