A stepmother who took her 11-year-old son to a post-Southport riot, where she shouted at police protecting asylum seekers, has says she has “massive regret” over her actions.
Amy Hodgkinson-Hedgecox, 38, joined the protest outside a Holiday Inn Express in Tamworth, Staffordshire, after initially intending to take the boy to a skate park, a court heard.
During the unrest on 4 August last year, the hotel was damaged and petrol was poured inside and set alight.
In November, Hodgkinson-Hedgecox reacted angrily when she given a 27-month prison sentence at Stafford Crown Court after pleading guilty to violent disorder.
But following her release on licence, the mother-of-two has now spoken of her remorse, describing herself as an “idiot” and “stupid” after getting “caught up in the moment”.
She was one of 544 people sentenced for offences linked to the nationwide unrest that broke out after the murder of three children at a dance class in Southport. The tragedy triggered a wave of misinformation, including inaccurate claims the killer was an asylum seeker.
Speaking to the BBC’s Panorama programme, Hodgkinson-Hedgecox , who now wears an electronic tag as part of a night-time curfew, said she joined the protest after seeing posts on social media that claimed asylum seekers had been filming children at a park close to the hotel.
She now acknowledges the claims may have been untrue.
The former factory worker, who lives in Tamworth, said: "I did swear. I was just shouting to the police, like, how would you like it if your child has been videoed by them? There's a level where you should be sticking up for us as well as them.”
"I was frustrated, I was really frustrated.”
Hodgkinson-Hedgecox said she did feel concerned for the people inside the hotel when she saw a petrol bomb being lit.
She said: "When they started smashing the windows, they were throwing fireworks through the holes and they were going bang in the building, I thought, something bad's going to happen here.
"As soon as I seen the lighter go on that petrol bomb I thought, oh my God, this building's going to go down. I was really concerned for [the people inside]. I thought, wow, this is gonna go up in flames, gonna kill them all.”
Looking back on her actions, she said: "I accept that I was wrong for being there. I should never have been there. And I accept I should have never took a child with me either. Massive regret, huge regret. It's bad parenting."
She also said: "I have no answer for it other than I'm an idiot, stupid, got caught up in the moment.”
While in prison, Hodgkinson-Hedgecox said she accepted £1,000 from far-right group Patriotic Alternative. It was offered to provide financial support for families of those convicted. She told the BBC she regretted taking the cash.
Last week, a police watchdog chief warned there was “every possibility” that similar violence to the Southport riots could reoccur.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services Sir Andy Cooke said the “tools that amplified hatred last summer remain largely unchanged and unregulated”.
He said: “Online misinformation continues to spread. Community tensions persist.”
He called on police forces to modernise their understanding of how disorder develops and spreads in the digital age.
