jailed smiling yob who took part in bus and hotel attacks

A CONVICTED drug dealer who took part in a 'frightening' attack outside a hotel which housed asylum seekers has been jailed.

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

On his way home from the pub, Lewis Whitworth, 30, a trainee mechanic, kicked a bus and joined a baying mob which hurled missiles and abuse at asylum seekers outside the premises, close to his home in Newton Heath.

The trouble, said to have been organised by email, was part of the disorder which hit towns and cities across the country, including in Greater Manchester, following the fatal stabbings of three girls at a Taylor Swiftthemed dance club in Southport last month.

Incorrect rumours - that the suspect in the stabbings was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK on a small boat - spread on social media and appears to have fuelled the trouble.

Violence erupted outside the hotel in Newton Heath two days after the stabbings on July 29.

Prosecutor Andrew Mackintosh told Manchester Crown Court yesterday that when police arrived on July 31 at 4pm it was quiet despite a number of protesters in the area but it 'didn't remain quiet.