Live-streaming rioter bitten by police dog ‘in area of particular tenderness’

Christopher Rodgers, 38, jailed for two years on Friday after filming violence outside hotel housing asylum seekers

A rioter who live-streamed disorder outside a hotel housing asylum seekers was bitten by a police dog “in an area of particular tenderness,” a court has heard.
Christopher Rodgers, 38, of Millmoor Road, Barnsley, was jailed for two years on Friday after filming the rioting outside a Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
As police tried to clear pockets of those involved, Rodgers was in group of people who threw missiles at officers on a nearby housing estate. Sheffield Crown Court heard how he was also aggressive towards police as they were arresting him.
Adrian Strong, defending, told Judge Jeremy Richardson KC that his client had seen the afternoon as something of a “social occasion”, adding: “There was chatting, there was talking, there was high spirits, and alcohol started flowing.”
Mr Strong said his client’s attitude changed when he was bitten three times by police dogs, with one bite “in an area of particular tenderness”. After he was bitten by the dog, Rodgers shouted: “Why are you refusing to take an Englishman to hospital?” the court heard.
Rodgers was jailed alongside an an HS2 team leader who chanted “Tommy Robinson” during the riot outside the hotel, which housed more than 200 asylum seekers.
Sheffield Crown Court heard how Paul Sissons, a tunnelling team leader on the HS2 project, was filmed over four hours shouting at police and chanting the name of the far-Right activist, whose actual name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
The 37-year-old then violently rocked a police van, with officers and a dog inside, as part of a mob. He was later seen throwing missiles at a group of cornered officers.
Body worn camera footage from an officer holding a riot shield was also shown of him kicking and pushing at a line of police officers as they tried to push the crowd back.
Luke Sissons, 34, was also part of the mob rocking the van, with footage showing him at the front of a group goading officers with riot shields while they were pinned against the hotel wall.
Video was also shown of him calling an officer a “w—-r”. He then asks him: “Why do you run away from immigrants, but when we do anything you f—ing cosh us? “I f—ing hate police officers. You’re grasses. I f—ing hate immigrants.”
Dermot Hughes, defending the brothers, who appeared at the hearing by video link from prison, said they were “thoroughly ashamed of their parts in this”.
Mr Hughes said Paul Sissons had a well-paid job that was now in jeopardy, stressing that he was very well regarded by his employers.
The brothers, of Barnsley, pleaded guilty to violent disorder at a previous hearing. They were both jailed for three years.
More than 20 men have now been jailed at Sheffield Crown Court by Judge Jeremy Richardson KC following the Rotherham disorder, in which 58 police officers, three police dogs and a police horse injured. Rioters broke into the hotel and tried to set the building alight.
Referring to the footage of the group of officers being attacked, Judge Richardson said: “It never ceases to frighten me, and I have the advantage of watching it days after the event in the security of this court room.
“The young officers who were on that cordon must have been terrified by that mob.”