A 22-year-old who threw a vacuum cleaner through a house window and told a police officer “I hope your children get raped” during riots in Middlesbrough was “overwhelmed by distaste for what had happened in Southport,” a court heard.

Thomas Rogers, of Wicklow Street, Middlesbrough, was jailed for 26 months after pleading guilty to violent disorder and possession of an offensive weapon.

Teesside Crown Court heard Rogers was seen throwing bricks at police by an officer who later asked if he was okay as he had blood on his T-shirt.

Rogers replied he had cut his hand throwing rocks at the police and “would do it again”. He told the officer: “I hope your kids get raped, I hate the police.”

A statement from a student who lives in the shared house where Rogers was filmed throwing a vacuum cleaner through the window said he and his partner had been left “feeling differently about the town they called home and the people they lived amongst”.

The landlord of the property said: “I feel angry and disappointed with the thugs, especially the idiot with the Hoover.”

In mitigation, the court heard Rogers was a “complex and vulnerable young man” who had grown up in care.

Tabitha Buck, defending, said the attack in Southport “had a significant effect on him” and he was “overwhelmed by distaste at what had occurred and his distaste at what he felt was a lack of reaction by the police”.

She told the court there was “indirect racism at play there”.

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Judge Francis Laird KC said his actions had a 'devastating impact' on the local community.

He said: "It is accepted by your counsel that, in part, your behaviour was racially motivated.

"It was a residential area and there were children about.