Teen first to face rioting charge

A teenager has become the first person charged by Scotland Yard with the offence of rioting over last summer’s disorder in Britain.

Jerome Amankwah, 19, of Griffin Road, Tottenham, north London, will appear on bail at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on February 9, police said.

He is accused of rioting in Tottenham High Road on August 6 last year, when trouble first flared following the fatal police shooting of father-of-four Mark Duggan two days earlier.

To convict someone of rioting, prosecutors must prove that 12 or more people together used or threatened unlawful violence that would cause a reasonably firm person present to fear for their personal safety.

The maximum sentence for the offence, which is set out in section 1 of the Public Order Act 1986, is 10 years in prison.