Yahoo News Pallister Park teen joined riot for 'sheer excitement and adrenaline' then hurled rocks at cops
A teen who got involved in the Hartlepool riots for "the sheer excitement and adrenaline" has been sent to a Young Offenders Institution.
Lennox Crockett handed himself into police after he was caught on bodycam footage throwing rocks at a line of police, from close quarters, in the midst of the screaming and chaos of the riots on July 31. The 19-year-old was dressed all in black, with his hood up, but was captured arguing with police as they shouted at rioters to move back.
He was seen encouraging others, including children, to push at the police line. On Monday, every seat in court one at Teesside Crown Court was taken, as Crockett's mother and extended family attended his sentencing.
The Middlesbrough court watched police bodycam footage, showing Crockett repeatedly throwing rocks at riot officers, who held up their plastic shields to protect themselves from being hit. The court heard that weeks before the riot, Crockett was arrested after police were called out to a report of a burglary.
Officers followed CCTV of a group of men running away from a house, towards a block of flats on Burwell Road, in Ormesby, Middlesbrough. They found him in a flat, with other men, sitting around a table with cannabis and cocaine on it.
Police reported nitrous oxide canisters lying around on the floor of the flat. Crockett told officers that all of the drugs were his and that he was "having a party."
Crockett, of Denham Green, Pallister Park in Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and to the possession of class A and B and C drugs; and failing to surrender to custody - after he failed to turn up at Teesside Magistrates' Court on September 5.
He has a previous conviction from July 15, for the possession of nitrous oxide for wrongful inhalation. In mitigation, Michele Turner said that all of her client's offending is recent and "it is to fit in".
The defence barrister said: "He took it on himself to protect others, who he feels he's been befriended by" when he admitted to the drugs. Ms Turner said that Crockett was expelled from primary school at a young age and that "he has been affected by the stigma of going to special school. He left with no qualifications".
"This is a man who has been trying to fit in since early childhood," she said. "At primary school he felt like he never understood what was going on around him and he struggled to make friends. He learnt that if he acted the fool, he got laughs and he got recognition."
'Sheer excitement'
Ms Turner said that Crockett has learning difficulties and struggles to read and write; he doesn't have a bank account; he doesn't understand that he is entitled to benefits and that "he relies on his mum and extended family for everything".
"He travelled to Hartlepool for the violence that was going on" Crockett's solicitor added, "it was the sheer excitement and adrenaline - I think is the way to explain his involvement. His fight was against the police."
Judge Francis Laird told Crockett: "I recognised your struggle with school and that you lack many of the tools necessary for an independent life. Your mother largely supports your lifestyle which unfortunately in recent times, has revolved around recreational drugs."
The judge said that he was "encouraged" by the number of people in court and that Crockett "clearly comes from a loving and caring family." "I will pass no separate penalty for the drugs offences and failing to surrender to custody," the judge said, before sending Crockett to a Young Offenders' Institution for 18-months.
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