Man who attacked pub during racial tensions jailed

Scared customers barricaded the doors of the Clumsy Swan pub as a mob gathered outside

A teenager who kicked a door during efforts to storm a pub he wrongly believed to contain members of a far-right group has been jailed for 20 months.

Birmingham Crown Court heard Haris Ghaffar, 19, was the first of several youths to kick a door at the city's Clumsy Swan pub.

It had been barricaded from the inside using furniture, as terrified customers sheltered there.

The prosecution said it occurred against a background of unrest caused by false rumours that members of the disbanded English Defence League were planning to "target the Muslim community" in Alum Rock and Bordesley Green.

The court was also told Ghaffar knew that others wearing balaclavas among the mob that surrounded the Clumsy Swan pub were armed with knives.

CCTV footage showed dozens of protesters, some carrying Palestinian flags, gather near the pub in the Yardley area on the night of 5 August, before a drinker standing outside was punched and kicked.

People were seen taking flying kicks at glass doors and repeatedly kicking a wooden side door.

Ghaffar pleaded guilty to violent disorder at a previous hearing.

Sentencing Ghaffar, the Recorder of Birmingham Judge Melbourne Inman KC said: "Sadly, this is another of a number of cases the court has had to deal with which arose from civil unrest following the tragic events that occurred in Southport."

He described the attack on the pub as a "depressing sight" and said it was "utterly mindless violence and mob violence against a public house that had nothing to do with anything - with people inside who were just out enjoying themselves and no doubt from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds".