A man has been jailed for over six years for his involvement in last summer’s riots in Hackney – the longest prison sentence given to a rioter in Hackney so far.

On 7 June, a jury at Wood Green Crown Court found Stephen Prince, a 23 year old from Warwick Grove, guilty of two counts of burglary, two counts of arson, robbery, violent disorder and common assault. All of Prince’s offences took place on 8 August 2011, a day when the boroughs of Hackney, Croydon and Lewisham were devastated by violence and looting.

Prince was eventually convicted after Hackney’s Operation Withern team trawled through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage and eventually found footage of Prince during which he was seen throwing bottles and concrete rubble at police officers, setting a car ablaze in the street, burgling a convenience store twice, violently robbing a member of the public of his bicycle and assaulting another member of the public.

Prince was wearing the same jeans and trainers that were seen of the CCTV footage when he was arrested in December 2011 and was also independently identified by four police officers.

Detective Sergeant Kate Davies, of Hackney’s Operation Withern team, said: “This is an excellent result and it is clear from the CCTV footage that this sentence is of an appropriate length, for this appalling behaviour.

“The judge commented that Prince had shown a deep animosity towards police and indeed appeared from the CCTC footage to be enjoying himself when committing the offences.

“My team will continue to work hard in identifying and prosecuting criminals who show the same disregard for the community, community life and the police.”

By Oliver Shaw