A rioter was at the forefront of a group of more than 100 people who attacked a traveller family on a campsite in an incident which involved knives and guns.
James Mongan, 35, was the vanguard of a riot at the Shirenewton campsite in Cardiff on March 21 which saw a crowd descend on the James family who were subjected to goading and threats.
The defendant claimed he was acting as an "adjudicator" for a pre-planned fight between members of the Shirenewton campsite, in Wentloog Road, Rumney, and New House Farm campsite to settle a dispute but he said the incident "got out of hand". He said that fights of this nature were "a culturally acceptable way of settling disputes in the travelling community" where participants would shake hands afterwards.
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As a result of the riot John James Jr suffered a serious head injury and a stab wound to his back while his father John James Sr received wounds to his shoulder, legs, and ear. Mr James Sr's other son Dylan James suffered wounds to his forehead and legs.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday heard Mr James Sr had fallen out with Jim Coffey from the New House Farm campsite, which led to threats and the James family receiving police protection, but they fell victim to the attack on March 21 led by Mongan.
Prosecutor Christopher Rees said: "This was an orchestrated attack on the James family and Mr Mongan was in a significant and prominent position and directed the attack on Mr James Sr and Mr James Jr.
"CCTV shows a large group of men mobbing up at the New House Farm site before walking to Shirenewton. They were an army on the move."
During the attack Mongan and others were wearing balaclavas and black masks and when they reached the plots belonging to the James family he could bee seen on CCTV waving his hands and gesticulating. Shortly later the riot broke out.
As he was goading the James family Mongan was attacked with a machete and was seen running away from the campsite with others. He later attended the John Radclifffe Hospital in Oxford where he gave a false name.
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The defendant, of the Greenacres campsite, Cardiff, later pleaded guilty to rioting.
In lengthy mitigation Jeremy Dein QC said his client was "not the ringleader or instigator" of the violence at the Shirenewton campsite.
He claimed Mr James Jr walked out of his property carrying a sawn-off shotgun and said it was Mongan who attempted to calm the situation down. He also claimed Mr James Sr had been the one who attacked him with a machete and left him "disabled for life".
The defence barrister added: "He accepts he made a horrendous error by participating in this offence but his role is not as significant as suggested. He made a terrible error of judgement and he did not anticipate the violence would escalate as much as it did."
The court heard Mongan was a married father-of-four who had taken responsibility for his sister's children after the death of his brother-in-law. He missed the birth of his fourth child after being remanded in custody.
Sentencing, Judge David Wynn Morgan said: "Participation in any form of fight between two groups of people, no matter in what capacity, is against the law. The fact that such fights are a culturally acceptable way of settling such disputes in a particular community does not make them lawful.
"Any person joining in a large group of people in order to fight another group of people who get caught must accept the consequences. Participating on the basis you are there to see fair play is not acceptable."
Mongan was sentenced to four years imprisonment and was made subject to a restraining order.
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