AN 18-YEARS-OLD TOTTENHAM YOUTH WHO ADMITTED THROW

AN 18-YEARS-OLD TOTTENHAM YOUTH WHO ADMITTED THROWING BRICKS
AT POLICE DURING LAST YEAR’S RIOT ON THE BROADWATER FARM ESTATE WAS

SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS YOUTH CUSTODY AT THE OLD BAILEY ON

MONDAY.

JOBLESS JOHN COKER, THE NEPHEW OF A UNIVERSITY LECTURER, WAS
‘AT THE SCENE OF SOME OF THE WORST VIOLENCE ON THE FRONT LINE,’
MR NIGEL SWEENEY, PROSECUTING TOLD THE COURT.

MR SWEENEY, DESCRIBING THE SCENE ON THE NIGHT OF THE RIOT IN
OCTOBER LAST YEAR, SAID: ‘POLICE WERE AMBUSHED BY SOME TWO OR
THREE HUNDRED PEOPLE WHO ATTACKED THE POLICE VANS WITH FISTS,
MACHETTES, PETROL BOMBS, AND BRANDISHED AT LEAST ONE GUN.

‘
COKER WAS ARRESTED AFTER PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN AT THE ESTATE
IDENTIFIED HIM.

HE WAS SAID TO HAVE ‘FULLY CO-OPERATED’ WITH
POLICE AND MADE FULL ADMISSIONS TO HIS PART.

FOR OVER AN HOUR COKER WAS SAID TO HAVE THROWN MISSILES AT
POLICE LINES.

HE ALSO THREW A HEATING ELEMENT WHICH HE HAD
EARLIER STOLEN FROM A VAN, SAID COUNSEL.

COKER WAS ARRESTED AT HIS HOME ON OCTOBER 26 AND ALLEGEDLY
TOLD POLICE HE HAD ‘HEARD A WHILE BEFORE THE EVENTS THERE WAS GOING

TO BE TROUBLE,’ SAID MR SWEENEY.

MR ROCK TANSEY, DEFENDING, SAID COKER HAS ‘SUFFERED IN A
DRAMATIC WAY’ SINCE HIS ARREST AND WAS ‘EXTREMELY ASHAMED OF WHAT
HE HAD DONE.

‘
COKER’S MOTHER PHYLLIS TOLD THE COURT HER SON HAD ‘SHUT

HIMSELF AWAY’ FROM FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND HAD BECOME DEEPLY

DEPRESSED.

SENTENCING COKER, OF PELHAM ROAD, TOTTENHAM, JUDGE

KENNETH MACHIN, QC COMMENTED: ‘IT IS A TRAGEDY TO SEE SOMEONE OF
YOUR AGE AND YOUR CHARACTER, AND OF WHOM SO MANY PEOPLE SPOKE SO
WELL AND SO HIGHLY, STANDING IN THE DOCK AT THE CENTRAL CRIMINAL
COURT.

‘ALL THOSE WHO TOOK PART ENCOURAGED THE MAGNITUDE OF THAT
AFFRAY, AND ENCOURAGED OTHERS.

THAT WAS A FRIGHTENING COURSE OF
CONDUCT BY YOU.

‘THOSE WHO PLAYED A PART THAT NIGHT MUST BE PUNISHED AND MUST
BE PUNISHED SEVERELY NOT ONLY AS A PUNISHMENT TO THEM BUT AS A
DETERRENT TO ANYONE SIMILARLY MINDED.

‘
COKER PLEADED GUILTY TO AFFRAY AND THE THEFT OF FIVE
HEATING ELEMENTS ON OCTOBER 6 LAST YEAR.

ENDS