Mum and daughter jailed for bringing pet chow chow to far-right riot
(Picture: PA)
A mother and daughter who took part in a riot while walking the family dog have both been jailed.
Amanda Walton, 51, was caught on CCTV throwing a missile, damaging a car wing mirror and rummaging through a bin during unrest in Middlesbrough over the summer,Teesside Crown Court heard.
Meanwhile, footage showed her daughter Megan Davison, 24, jumping up and down on a car’s roof, assisting in smashing windows and sticking a finger up at a police officer, said Rachel Masters, prosecuting.
Walton brought her pet chow chow to the march on August 4, the court heard, and video showed both women holding the pet’s lead at times as a mob made its way up Parliament Street.
The pair admitted violent disorder at a previous hearing and Walton was jailed for 22 months and Davison for 20 months by Judge Francis Laird KC.
Davison’s partner, Jake Wray, is awaiting sentence after admitting the same offence, having stopped cars at a junction to challenge drivers if they were ‘white’ or ‘English’.
Walton, of Ashling Way, handed herself in after police circulated images of the trouble.
Davison, a mother-of-two, was arrested at her home in Seaton Street.
Police were investigating 250 crimes where private individuals suffered damage to property, or public buildings were vandalised on August 4, the court heard.
Jon Harley, defending Davison, said she had taken a cocktail of drink and drugs the night before following a break-up, and was still intoxicated during the march.
‘She allowed herself to be swept up and behaved in a very stupid manner,’ he said.
Since being in prison she has managed to stay drug-free, he said.
Gary Wood, for Walton, said she was at the protest out of concern for her daughter.
‘She hadn’t planned to be involved, in fact she is present in the street with her dog,’ he said.
The judge accepted that neither woman was motivated by racist ideology and that both were remorseful.
Judge Laird said the seriousness of the disorder, set against other outbreaks of trouble elsewhere in the country, meant neither sentence could be suspended, but he gave both credit for pleading guilty which reduced their jail terms.
Wray is due to be sentenced next week.
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