A rioter from Middlesbrough attacked and kicked a policeman.
A rioter from Middlesbrough attacked and kicked a policeman.
A rioter from Middlesbrough has been imprisoned after attacking a policeman and being dragged away by onlookers to avoid being taken into custody.
Subsequently, 27-year-old Matthew Putson was observed attempting to break into a traffic light while wearing a head covering. In addition, he was seen hurling bricks and glass bottles into a row of riot police while his sister was heard pleading with him to stop.
According to evidence presented at Teesside Crown Court, Putson was first observed by a police officer on August 4 when he was with a group of people shouting racial remarks. After yelling at the officer, he kicked the PC in the leg and hit him in the right hand.
Because he had leg protection on, PC McCone was spared harm. Putson scaled the traffic light about 4 p.m. as more fighting broke out at the intersection of Linthorpe Road, Ayreseome Street, and Park Road North.
After some time, an officer who had previously dealt with him recognized him from video. Six days after the riots, he was taken into custody and on August 13 entered a guilty plea to charges of violent disorder and assaulting an emergency personnel.
Putson had 30 prior convictions for 53 offenses, including possession of a blade, multiple convictions for criminal damage, and violence.
He was convicted in 2014 of assaulting a 78-year-old former soldier, receiving a four-year sentence. At the age of seventeen. On Remembrance Sunday, the man was heading home from the tavern when Putson and his companion stole his walking stick. The elderly guy staggered and fell to the ground, when Putson and his friend took his phone and went through his pockets, telling him they had a knife.
After hitting the veteran in the face with his own walking stick, they fled, leaving him laying on Middlesbrough’s Egmont Road. Shortly after, the two broke into a family’s house.
Putson appeared in court on Thursday over a video link from the prison in Doncaster. His family was present in the public gallery to see the reading of a statement from PC MCCone. After serving in his position for 17 years, the officer stated he has dealt with the London riots before, adding, “The disorder and violence on this occasion was far worse.”
“I could not believe this is what was happening on the streets of Middlesbrough.”
Eight police officers were hurt during the Middlesbrough incident, according to testimony given in court by 320 policemen. According to Cleveland Police Chief Constable Mark Webster, “the level of aggression, hatred and violence directed at the police was unprecedented.”
The attorney for Putson, Gary Wood, stated that even though Putson was “directly associated with people using racial slurs, he did not use offensive language himself.”
During their encounter, Mr. Wood reported that his client “had expressed shame” and that “he had intended to behave peacefully, but accepts he completely lost sight of that.”
Mr Wood stated that Putson had “spend the majority of his adult life in prison and he insists this is not where he wants to spend the remainder of his life.”
While awaiting Judge Francis Laird KC’s consideration of his sentence, Putson seemed to be sketching on a sheet of paper. The judge reappeared after thirty minutes and reported that about a thousand rioters had attacked homes, vehicles, and public areas.
The judge informed Putson that he had hurled missiles at the police and that, in order to hide his identify for part of the disturbance, he had worn a head covering.
Putson, of Middlesbrough’s Palmer Street, served a 32-month sentence in prison.
