Courts could sit through night to deal with rioters as violence continues
Revealing the plan, justice minister Heidi Alexander also said a ‘standing army’ of specialist police had been set up to deal with violent protests.
Courts could begin sitting through the night a minister has suggested, as thousands of specialist police officers stand ready to deal with the rioting which continues across the UK.
Disorder has now lasted for a week, with unrest witnessed across England and in parts of Northern Ireland.
Police were injured during “sustained violence” in Plymouth on Monday, while similar trouble on the streets of Darlington saw officers pelted with bricks.
Justice minister Heidi Alexander said the Government will bring more than 500 additional prison places into use to deal with rioting, and some 6,000 specialist police officers were at the ready.
“We will make sure that anyone who is given a custodial sentence as a result of the riots and disorder, there will be a prison place waiting for them,” she warned on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The minister said some 567 additional prison spaces would soon come into use.
Extra cells at HMP Stocken, Rutland, will be in use from “next week”, she said, with plans also in place to use space at Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution in Kent for adult prisoners.
She also revealed more detail about the planned “standing army” of police officers Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced on Monday afternoon.
“We had 4,000 available at the weekend. There will be another 2,000 available this week. It also means that police officers are able to be deployed in parts of the country where they are needed most.”
Elsewhere, she said courts “could possibly” begin sitting “through the evening, the night, at weekends” in order to swiftly prosecute rioters.
The additional courts protocol, which was created in the aftermath of the 2011 riots, could be invoked in areas where police and prosecuting chiefs feel it is needed, the minister also told LBC.
The courts are now “willing to consider any of those requests”, according to Ms Alexander.
The Government’s toughening stance comes as South Yorkshire police said said people have been charged with offences following rioting outside a hotel in Rotherham on Sunday.
Lee Crisp, 42, of Mount Road, Grimethorpe; Christopher Rodgers, 38, of Millmoor Road, Barnsley; and Liam Grey, 20, of Randerson Drive, Mexborough; have been charged with violent disorder.
Two boys aged 16 and 17, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have also been charged with violent disorder.
The force said all six are due to appear at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, Avon and Somerset Police said a third man has been charged in connection with violent disorder in Bristol city centre on Saturday
Ashley Harris, 36, of Chipperfield Drive, Kingswood, has been charged with violent disorder and is due to appear at Bristol Magistrates’ Court later on Tuesday.
Two other men, aged 45 and 39, were charged with Section 4 public order offences on Sunday and are due in court in September.
In Plymouth on Monday night, “several officers” suffered minor injuries and two members of the public were taken to hospital, Devon and Cornwall Police said.
The force said Section 60 and 60AA powers have been authorised in the area, giving officers enhanced stop and search capabilities and the authority to order people to remove face coverings.
Following the disorder, Assistant Chief Constable Richie Allen said: “What we have been dealing with tonight in Darlington has been sporadic pockets of violent disorder involving groups of people intent on causing serious harm to our communities and their property.”
Children blew bubbles and others left flowers and heart-shaped balloons on Monday evening in remembrance of the victims of the stabbing attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club.
Merseyside Police have since said one child caught up in the incident remained in hospital but all other patients had been discharged.
Incorrect rumours, that the suspect in the stabbings was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK on a small boat spread via social media, appear to have fuelled the unrest.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said rioters “defile” the nation’s flag as they carry out “criminal violence”, and he hit out at “manipulation” which he said must be “strongly resisted”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This (violence) is not the United Kingdom. It’s not British. It’s not English. They defile the flag that they wrap themselves in.”
Disorder has also continued in areas of Belfast while, in Birmingham, Sky News reported on Monday that one of its vans was attacked by a “knife-wielding man”.
The news outlet reported its journalists had observed “a large gathering of Muslim men” who said they were preparing to “defend” the street from another rumoured far-right protest in the area.
There have been at least 378 arrests since the violence broke out last week, with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) warning the total is expected to rise each day.
Organisation Tell Mama, which monitors anti-Muslim attacks, said it had called the police over “far-right threats on Telegram that seek to target immigration solicitors and refugee services” in more than 30 locations across the country on Wednesday.
