Courts Ex-soldier among those jailed for violent disorder

A former soldier who served in Kosovo, Bosnia and Northern Ireland has been jailed for two and a half years after admitting confronting police as they tried to protect a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham.

- Hannah al-Othman

Peter Beard, 43, of Brampton Bierlow, Rotherham, was filmed on police body-worn cameras at the front of a mob outside the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers on 4 August.

The court heard that Beard's aggression towards officers came at a critical time in the rioting, after the hotel had been breached, attempts had been made to set fire to the building and outnumbered police were trying to disperse hundreds of people.

Sentencing Beard, who had served in the Royal Green Jackets between 1998 and 2003, at Sheffield crown court, the recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, said: "Your conduct was shameful, it was disgraceful and in many respects astonishing.

"The reason I say it was astonishing is because for many years you served in the British army and undertook several tours of duty which involved peacekeeping operation.

"You have been, I'm told, on the receiving end of attacks by those indulging in public disorder in war zones. You know what it is like to be under attack and yet there you were attacking a police officer who was doing his duty."