In-depth: Police and mayor to review Rotherham hotel tactics after unprecedented violence leaves 51 officers injured

In the one of most shocking incidents of violence in the wave of disorder that followed online misinformation about the identity of the Southport child killer, last Sunday hundreds of people attacked the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Manvers, smashing windows and attempting to set it alight while 240 people were inside.

Counter-terrorism director Nick Aldworth suggested on Sky News after the incident that a “serious failure” in preparing for the pre-publicised protest had left under-resourced officers on the ground in a dangerous situation.

SYP Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield said on Monday that violence in Rotherham had escalated after force resources had also been diverted to a large crowd in Sheffield, where an anti-immigration protest was being met with counter demonstrators at the same time.

Officers were injured by items such as bricks, fenceposts and branches as they battled for hours to restore order and protect those in the hotel.

South Yorkshire Police said a “structured debrief” to assess how the incident was handled is planned “at the appropriate point in time” but added the force has “already taken learning from the events on Sunday and this has informed our response this week”.

On Wednesday, amidst fears of further trouble, SYP sent dozens of officers into Sheffield city centre as a visible presence as a small group of anti-immigration protesters and a larger number of counter-demonstrators gathered in the city centre.

In the evening police were also present in large numbers as hundreds gathered to protect an immigration advice centre from an expected far-right protest at the location.

Mr Coppard, who is also the region’s police and crime commissioner, said: “All our communities should feel reassured that our police have the resources in place to keep people safe in South Yorkshire.

"The violence in Manvers on Sunday was caused by violent people set on attacking some of the most vulnerable people in our society. It was unprecedented, I spoke to officers with decades of experience who were shocked by the actions of the perpetrators. I couldn’t be more proud of the police who responded on Sunday, they acted with incredible bravery. These violent people injured more than 50 officers - there is nothing patriotic about attacking our police.

“I will work closely with the Chief Constable and Senior Officers as they assess the police response to this violence and I will also be speaking to Ministers about how we ensure our police have the resources they need. The government has been clear that South Yorkshire Police can ask for more resources should they need them, and ‘mutual aid’ is available from other forces.”

An SYP spokesperson said planning and resourcing for the Rotherham protest was based both on known intelligence and how previous protests by the hotel had unfolded.

They said: “The situation rapidly evolved on the ground, with a concurrent need to resource a spontaneous event at another location in the force. At this time additional officers were requested and powers under the Public Order Act [for managing gatherings] were considered and invoked, however the crowd failed to comply.

“In Rotherham, the conduct of those in attendance escalated to unprecedented levels of violence. Our officers came under significant and sustained attack, at which point considerable further resources were requested in support.

“On Sunday, as every day, the officers of South Yorkshire Police put themselves between the public and harm. We will continue to protect our communities.”

There have been 29 arrests and 15 people charged over disorder in South Yorkshire in recent days.

Media Minister Stephanie Peacock, whose Barnsley South constituency is close to the attacked Holiday Inn hotel said those involved in the trouble in Rotherham and elsewhere do not represent Britain.

“The appalling behaviour we have seen has been terrible,” she said during a visit to The Yorkshire Post’s office in Leeds. “It is not a reflection of Britain. It is a violent minority and those that are behaving or engaging in that sort of behaviour will and are seeing the full force of the law.”

The disorder which spread throughout the country since early last week has been blamed in part on widely-circulated online misinformation claiming the person responsible for the Southport killings was an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in the country by boat.

A 55-year-old woman from near Chester was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred and false communications.

Police had initially confirmed the suspect was born in Cardiff and he was subsequently named in court as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana.

There has also been concern other misinformation spread in the days after the Southport killings.

Police described separate claims made by former English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, about street stabbings as ‘false'.

Last Saturday, Robinson tweeted that two white men had been stabbed in Stoke. Police issued a statement within an hour to state reports of a stabbing were ‘false’ and the men had been hit by a blunt object and were not seriously injured.

Robinson did not delete the original post but subsequently tweeted almost six hours later to say police had reported there was no stabbing. By the middle of this week, the original post had been viewed one million times with the subsequent clarification seen 171,000 times.

On the same night he tweeted an ‘alleged Muslim’ had stabbed ‘at least’ three women in Stirling. Police subsequently said a white local man had been arrested and charged over the stabbing of one woman and cautioned against ‘false information circulating on social media’.

The post remains on his feed, having been viewed 2.1 million times.

It comes as one of the country’s highest-profile child sexual exploitation survivors is now working with Robinson despite previously criticising him for attempting to take credit for exposing issues with grooming gangs.

Sammy Woodhouse has recently started working as a citizen journalist for Urban Scoop, an organisation which raises funds to support Robinson’s activities. He has repeatedly posted her videos filmed at demonstrations on X to his 900,000 followers in recent days.

Ms Woodhouse, who is now in her 30s, was central to exposing the Rotherham abuse scandal and helping bring about the subsequent convictions of a notorious grooming gang that operated in the town.

She initially used the pseudonym of ‘Jessica’ to tell her story to The Times in which she explained how gang ringleader Arshid Hussain had started abusing when she was just 14 and he was 24, being made pregnant twice and having his child when she was just 15.

The story contributed to Rotherham Council ordering the Jay inquiry which in 2014 revealed at least 1,400 children in the town had been victims of CSE, largely at the hands of Pakistani-heritage perpetrators.

Hussain, his brothers Basharat and Bannaras and three other associates were jailed in 2016 following a three-month trial in which Woodhouse and 11 other women gave evidence. Five of the women were only contacted by police after the publication of the Jay report.

Woodhouse waived her anonymity in 2017 and has since become a well-known national figure. In 2018, she gave an interview to BBC Newsnight in which she criticised Robinson for claiming credit for exposing grooming gangs as well as his lack of focus on white abusers.

“If they are going to talk about child rape, about the system and failings then they should talk about it as a whole and not just by Pakistani Muslims. The majority of paedophiles are actually white males,” she said.

She added: “There’s a lot of people taking credit for things they haven’t done. If we are going to be really honest, the people that have exposed scandals throughout the country is survivors contacting the media. When you get people such as Britain First or Tommy Robinson or other people saying actually we exposed Rotherham, well no you didn’t. I do think they have highlighted the issue and raised awareness but they didn’t expose it. It is disrespectful to take credit for what we have done.”

Later that year, during a visit to the House of Commons she was hailed by then Speaker John Bercow as ‘extraordinary, brave and courageous’ as well as then PM Theresa May.

She has also published an autobiography, worked with multiple cross-party senior politicians on issues relating to the rights of CSE victims and presented an acclaimed BBC documentary about children born from rape.

Ms Woodhouse was contacted for an interview by The Yorkshire Post on Tuesday and she requested questions were put to her in a message. The Yorkshire Post emailed a series of questions but she had not provided a response at the time of going to print despite several follow-up requests.

But she posted more generally on X earlier this week about her recent work: “There’s many people in my community and across the UK that feel completely let down, angry, neglected, blamed and slandered by politicians and the main stream media for what’s happening across the country. I feel that too.”

Urban Scoop also failed to respond to request for comment.