A stepmother who took her 11-year-old son to a post-Southport riot and shouted at officers protecting asylum seekers has expressed “massive regret” for her actions.
Amy Hodgkinson-Hedgecox, 38, joined the protest outside a Holiday Inn Express in Tamworth, Staffordshire, despite initially intending to take the boy to a skate park, according to court documents.
During the unrest on August 4, last year, the hotel was damaged, with petrol poured inside and set on fire.
Hodgkinson-Hedgecox reacted angrily in November when she was sentenced to 27 months in prison at Stafford Crown Court after admitting to violent disorder.
However, following her release on licence, the mother-of-two has spoken of her regret, describing herself as a “idiot” and “stupid” for becoming “caught up in the moment.”
She was one of 544 people sentenced for crimes related to the nationwide uprising that erupted following the murder of three children at a dance class in Southport. The tragedy sparked a wave of misinformation, including false claims that the killer was an asylum seeker.
Hodgkinson-Hedgecox, who now wears an electronic tag as part of a nighttime curfew, told the BBC’s Panorama programme that she joined the protest after seeing social media posts claiming asylum seekers were filming children in a park near the hotel.
She now admits the allegations may have been false.
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.
“When I saw the lighter go on that petrol bomb, I thought, oh my God, this building is going to collapse. I was very concerned for [the people inside]. I thought, “Wow, this is going to go up in flames and kill everyone.”
Looking back on her actions, she admitted: “I accept that I was wrong to be there. I should not have been there. And I admit I should never have taken a child with me. Massive, massive regret. “It is bad parenting.”
She additionally responded: “I have no answer for it other than I’m an idiot, stupid, got caught up in the moment.”
While in prison, Hodgkinson-Hedgecox admitted to accepting £1,000 from the far-right Patriotic Alternative. It was offered to provide financial assistance to families of those convicted. She told the BBC that she regretted taking the money.
A police watchdog chief warned last week that there was “every possibility” that similar violence to the Southport riots would occur again.
Sir Andy Cooke, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that the “tools that amplified hatred last summer remain largely unchanged and unregulated”.
He stated, “Online misinformation continues to spread. “Community tensions persist.”
He urged police forces to update their understanding of how disorder arises and spreads in the digital age.
