Taxi driver jailed over Southport disorder loses bid to challenge sentence

ITV News

5 days ago

A taxi driver thought to have received one of the longest sentences for the disorder that followed the Southport attack has lost a bid to appeal against his prison term.
Andrew McIntyre was jailed for seven and a half years in January for encouraging violent disorder and criminal damage and possession of a knife, following the attack on 29 July 2024 in which three girls died.
After the attack, McIntyre set up a Telegram channel called 'Southport Wake Up' and shared content from a site called Tommy Robinson/Britain First/For Britain about a protest in Southport on 30 July.
At the Court of Appeal barristers for McIntyre, formerly from Rufford, Lancashire, claimed his sentence should have been lower as he was not given enough credit for his guilty pleas.
Dismissing the appeal bid Lord Justice Holroyde said: 'It was for the judge to decide what reduction was appropriate.'
He continued: 'It is not arguable that the total sentence was excessive, let alone manifestly so.'
After the Southport attack, McIntyre said in one post: 'Rise Up English Lads. 8pm tomorrow St Luke's Rd Southport.'
Hours before violence broke out in the town, he wrote: 'Message to All … Stand in our way, even if you're just doing your job … prepare to fall.'
Liverpool Crown Court heard in January that McIntyre's phone was in the area of St Luke's Road in Southport at 7pm on 30 July, and the car he was later arrested in was also in the area when the disorder took place.
Over the following days, McIntyre congratulated those involved in the disorder and shared information about immigration advisers.
He was arrested in Liverpool on 8 August, with a knife found hidden in the boot of his car.
The court heard that when his home was searched, officers found weapons and a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf.
Sentencing him, Judge Neil Flewitt KC said McIntyre was 'motivated by racial hatred' and was 'prominent' among those spreading misinformation after the attack.
Julian Nutter, for McIntyre, said he should have been given a shorter sentence to reflect his guilty pleas.
He said the case did not concern an offender who had 'provided the means' to commit offences or 'instructions to make those means'.
Arthur Gibson, for the Crown Prosecution Service, told the hearing in London that the evidence of McIntyre's offending 'was there for the defendant to accept or deny as he so wished'.
He continued: 'There were guilty pleas entered, but subsequent to that, even, the applicant was not accepting his full responsibility."
In the Court of Appeal's ruling, Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mrs Justice Yip and Sir Robin Spencer, said: 'The applicant incited violence and criminal damage by many people at different locations on multiple occasions.
'He thereby threatened public safety, promoted widespread damage to property and exposed police officers to serious injury.
'He boasted about the scale of disorder which disfigured Southport and other towns and cities. Throughout, his conduct was racially motivated."