Tamworth disorder: Woman jailed after chanting racial slurs

A woman who chanted racial slurs while with her 11-year-old stepson during disorder in the summer has been jailed.

Aimee Hodgkinson-Hedgecox, of Stonydelph, Tamworth, was taking her stepson to a skate park when she got involved in unrest, sparked by events in Southport, outside the town's Holiday Inn Express .

A hearing at Stafford Crown Court was told she was captured on CCTV on 4 August chanting racist phrases and repeatedly challenging police.

She was sentenced to two years and three months in prison after pleading guilty to violent disorder at a previous hearing.

The 37-year-old was also seen moving her stepson out of the way of missiles being thrown towards officers and recording footage, which she posted on social media.

Judge Jonathan Gosling said: "This anarchy endangered the lives of those in the hotel and you tried to excuse your behaviour, which was born out of utterly conceived prejudice.

"Those inside had a right not to be intimidated and terrified."

Hodgkinson-Hedgecox was one of six people who pleaded guilty in September to charges related to the disorder at the Holiday Inn Express, which was said to have been housing asylum seekers.

It was one of several incidents of violent disorder that broke out after misinformation was spread about the identity of the alleged murderer of three girls in Southport earlier this year.