Luke Crowcroft: Former pro boxer from Doncaster nicknamed The Beast jailed for role in asylum seeker hotel riots

16 September 2024, 13:15 | Updated: 16 September 2024, 15:22

A professional boxer has been jailed for his involvement in a mob which attacked a police van outside a hotel housing asylum seekers.

Luke Crowcroft, 30, from Scawthorpe in Doncaster, was jailed for two years and six months at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday.

Defending Crowcroft, Ed Moss said he was a successful boxer from an early age who had "been disciplined" all his life.

Mr Moss said the offending was "simply not in his nature" and that "out of character simply doesn't do it justice".

He said his client was a key part of the care of his partner's 15-year-old son and that he wished to "apologise to everybody".

The court heard Crowcroft was part of a group that tried to overturn a police van outside the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham, on 4 August.

The former middleweight, nicknamed The Beast, had 11 wins from 14 bouts, according to boxing data available online.

The disorder was part of wider rioting outside the hotel, which left 64 officers, three police dogs and a horse injured.

Staff had barricaded themselves in the kitchen with freezers in the fear they would die, the court was told.

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Judge Sarah Wright also jailed 19-year-old Ashley Lowe, of Darfield, Barnsley, for two years and two months for his involvement.

Clarkson Baptiste, his defence lawyer, said there was "no reason" for Lowe, who was 18 at the time, to be at the riot and that it was "the biggest mistake he's made in his life".

Ben Beardsley, 38, of Mexborough, was jailed for two years and eight months.

In his defence, Mr Baptiste said the father-of-two didn't have "any political or racist views whatsoever" but "got caught up in what was going on".

All three defendants admitted violent disorder at previous hearings.

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