15-year-old boy becomes first to be charged with rioting following recent UK unrest

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LONDON (AP) — A 15-year-old boy on Thursday became the first person to be charged with rioting following a wave of violent unrest that swept across the U.K.

The teen, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appeared at South Tyneside Youth Court on Thursday but his case was adjourned for two weeks. He was charged following disorder in Sunderland in northern England on Aug. 2, and had pleaded guilty to separate charges of violent disorder and burglary.

“This defendant is one of a number of individuals who we expect will be charged with riot,” said Gale Gilchrist, chief crown prosecutor for northeast England.

Hundreds of people have been arrested and charged since riots erupted on July 30 after misinformation spread online that the suspect in a knife attack that killed three children was a Muslim asylum-seeker.

Protesters fueled by far-right activists attacked a mosque in the town of Southport, where the girls were killed, and the violence soon spread to more than a dozen cities and towns across the country. Some of the worst unrest centered around hotels housing asylum-seekers, with protesters hurling bricks and storming some hotels and clashing with riot police.

Many have since been charged with violent disorder and sentenced, but no one else had so far been charged with rioting, a more serious offense that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Also on Thursday, a man was jailed for three years and two months in the city of Manchester for punching and kicking a Black man in the face during disorder in the city. Another man who threw bricks at police outside a hotel housing asylum-seekers was sentenced to two years and 10 months.

Last week, a 26-year-old man who used social media to encourage people to torch hotels that house asylum-seekers was sentenced to more than three years in prison.