Man jailed after throwing 'lighted arrows' during Rotherham hotel riot

Drew Jarvis was filmed from inside the hotel, where disorder broke out following the Southport stabbings

Author: Liam ArrowsmithPublished 13th Aug 2024

A man from Barnsley has been jailed for three years after throwing bricks and lighted arrows at police during a riot outside a hotel housing asylum seekers.

19-year-old Drew Jarvis was filmed from inside the hotel in Rotherham on Sunday 4th August, where disorder broke out in the wake of the Southport stabbings.

Footage was shown in court, filmed from inside the hotel, of Jarvis throwing wooden planks at the building, wearing a hoodie and a mask.

When the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, asked "what possessed him to turn up", Dale Harris, defending, said: "Probably stupidity."

The court heard how Jarvis told police after his arrest that he went to the hotel because it was "just another opportunity to vote, to sort out the hotel, to sort out the people staying within it".

Unemployed Jarvis, of no fixed abode, but originally from Barnsley, admitted violent disorder last week.

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