The London disorder
Between 6 - 10 August 2011, London was rocked by an unprecedented level of public disorder. Over a period of four days, more than two thirds of all London boroughs experienced public disturbances. The disorder resulted in two deaths and entire high streets were destroyed by acts of criminal damage, looting and arson.
These events presented CPS London with one of its biggest challenges to date. Hundreds of people were arrested in the immediate aftermath with the prospect of thousands more to follow. The CPS response was to work with its partner agencies to ensure that charging decisions could be made and that cases could then be prosecuted swiftly and fairly.
Additional court sessions
In a unique joint agency response, to cope with the extra influx of cases, 14 courts sat in to the evening or throughout the night. This included eight sessions at Westminster, Stratford and Highbury Corner Magistrates' Courts which ran all through the night. Additionally, two Sunday courts sat at Westminster and Saturday courts at Camberwell, Thames Magistrates', Westminster, Wimbledon and Stratford sat for a number of weeks.
Special Operations Unit
CPS London set up a special operations unit consisting of prosecutors, paralegal Officers and administrators to concentrate on preparing both the first wave of and subsequent disorder cases. Existing cases are being concluded and new prosecutions are being brought every day and this is expected to go on for some time.
As at 26th March 2012, the cases of 1,892 defendants have been concluded.
Cases that have been charged are being dealt with at six London magistrates'/youth courts:
- Camberwell Green MC
- Highbury Corner MC
- South Western MC
- Thames MC
- West London MC
- Balham Youth Court
and two Crown Courts:
- Wood Green CC
- Inner London CC
Community Impact and Victim Personal statements
22 London boroughs were affected by the disorder and a senior police officer for each borough has made a statement to describe the impact on the local community. Additionally where crimes have an identifiable victim, statements may be taken from the victim describing the impact that the crime had on them. Our prosecutors draw the courts attention to these statements in cases where defendants are convicted and fall to be sentenced.
Examples of some of the cases which we have prosecuted include:
- A 22-year old man who was sentenced to five years and four months in prison after he assaulted police officers and committed six burglaries during the disorder in Woolwich. Johanson Ago handed himself in to police after they conducted intelligence led enquiries to find him. CCTV footage showed him breaking the windscreen of a police car and then throwing bricks at the windscreen of an unmarked police car as officers were trying to leave the area. He then went on to commit burglaries in five shops.
- Chelsea Ives, an 18 year old from Waltham Forest, was involved in disturbances in Enfield and Hackney on 7 and 8 August. She smashed the window of a Vodafone store before joining the mob in an attack on Phones4U and later boasting on Facebook that she had had "the best day ever". She was also seen attacking a police car. Ives admitted burglary, damaging a marked BMW police car and two counts of violent disorder and was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on November 8 to two years in a young offenders' institution.
- Junior Saunders pleaded guilty to six charges at Wood Green Crown Court and was sentenced to a total of five years imprisonment for violent disorder, criminal damage to a police car and burglary in Hackney. During the disorder in Hackney, he threw step ladders at the police and was later seen breaking into the back of an articulated lorry, where he spent fifteen minutes passing planks of wood from the lorry to other suspects. The wood was used to smash windows of buses that were full of passengers, to attack other property and to throw at the police.
- Ryan Kichenside was sentenced to a five year and 10 month sentence after being identified on a youtube clip of the disorder in Croydon. Kichenside chased his victim, who he then grabbed by the neck and pulled from his moped before stealing the moped and the £1,700 and documents in the pannier. He also pleaded guilty to violent disorder and the burglaries of two shops.
