Parents frog-marched son to police station after seeing looting picture

A teenager was “frog-marched” to a police station after his parents saw photos of him looting, a court heard yesterday.

Michael Fitzpatrick, 18, confessed to being one of the hundreds rioting and looting in Manchester city centre last week.

Looking pale and drawn, he appeared in the dock at the city’s magistrates’ court, with his mother, flanked by her husband, wiping a tear from her eye as her son was refused bail and led back to the cells.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Tim McArdle, defending, said: “His photo was in the national newspapers. His mother saw that photo and was so disgusted with her son they effectively frog-marched him down to the police station.

“This is his first dealings with the criminal justice system.”

Fitzpatrick, from Worsley, Salford, had gone into the city centre “out of curiosity”, Mr McArdle said.

He added: “He’s gone on to the streets, seen what other people were doing and joined in. He’s made a serious error of judgment. He accepts that.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Fitzpatrick admitted he was one of those involved in the attack on the Foot Asylum shop, which lost £14,000 of training shoes. He also entered a ransacked Spar shop and the Bang & Olufsen store.

Fitzpatrick was also spotted drinking from a £40 bottle of champagne, stolen from Kro Bar, damaged to the tune of £9,500 as rioters broke in before they carried off £10,000 in goods.

He admitted three counts of burglary as a trespasser and one of handling stolen goods and was remanded in custody to be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday.

Related topics: