Two men jailed for violence at protest over police treatment of Henry Nowak

Two men who threw a smoke grenade and traffic cone at police during the violence in Southampton that followed the sentencing of Henry Nowak’s killer have been jailed.Leon O’Leary, 41, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, was sentenced to three years and one month after throwing a smoke grenade at officers.Connor Bishop, 24, from Southampton, who hurled a traffic cone, was jailed for two years and eight months.Both admitted violent disorder. O’Leary also admitted possession of an offensive weapon, a samurai sword that police found in his bedroom when they went to arrest him.After Nowak, 18, was stabbed to death, his father, Mark, condemned the “inhumane and degrading” treatment of his son by police, who handcuffed him as he lay dying. He also pleaded for Henry’s death not to be used to cause division, hatred or tension.The day after Vickrum Digwa was sentenced for the murder and footage of the tragedy emerged, a crowd gathered for an anti-police demonstration outside Southampton central police station. The far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson, was among the protesters.Hundreds of people moved on to the Portswood area of the city, where Nowak was murdered and Digwa lived, and violent clashes left 11 officers injured. Twenty-one people have been charged in relation to the disorder.Siobhan Linsley, prosecuting, told Southampton crown court: “It is estimated that approximately 1,000 people were in attendance at the demonstration.” She said about a quarter were drinking alcohol.“Significant disorder broke out with participants acting particularly aggressively towards the police,” she said. “They were shouting abuse and throwing makeshift projectiles such as bricks and bins towards them.”She said O’Leary, who had nine previous convictions, was observed launching a smoke grenade.Of Bishop, she said: “He can be seen carrying a yellow traffic cone which he throws towards the back of the PSU [police support unit] officers.”Bishop, who has seven convictions, was subject to a community order for elbowing his mother after an argument broke out with his then-girlfriend.Linsley read out a statement on behalf of British Transport police officer Ruby Stephenson, who was present at the disturbance. She said: “I was chased by protesters who were calling us traitors and scum. I was abused, called names and threatened.“I was terrified and I did not think I would make it out of there alive or without serious injuries. I have been a police officer for 12 years and I have never experienced such violence or hatred towards the police.”Thomas Evans, defending, said: “They are not the instigators of this disorder, they are inevitable result of other individuals who seek to harness anger.”Robinson posted on X: “Starmer’s regime has begun mass jailing the English for the protest in Southampton.”Digwa, 23, was jailed for life and told he would serve a minimum of 21 years for Nowak’s murder after falsely claiming that the teenager had racially abused him.