UK school prefect jailed for riot role

Laura Johnson will spend over seven months in prison for her role in the English riots. File photo / Herald on Sunday

A millionaire's daughter was yesterday jailed for two years for her role in 'one of most serious' rampages of last summer's riots in England.

Laura Johnson was said to have become infatuated with a drug-dealing gangster and acted as a chauffeur for him and his friends as they pillaged electrical goods in a seven-hour crime spree.

Yesterday, the 20-year-old Exeter University student and former grammar school prefect smiled nervously as sentence was passed while her parents, who live in a £1million house in Orpington, Kent, watched from the public gallery.

Sentencing her and teenage accomplice Christopher Edwards at Inner London Crown Court, Judge Patricia Lees said: 'Your actions added to the overall lawlessness that threatened to overwhelm the forces of law and order.'

Johnson, dressed demurely in a black cardigan and blue blouse, was joined in the dock by Edwards, 17, who can now be identified after the judge lifted an order banning his identification. He was sentenced to 12 months. The judge said: 'You both come from supportive homes. Of neither of you could it be said that your parents have not provided every advantage they could for you.

'It seems to me that like so many others, you both revealed a weaker side to your characters in taking advantage of an escalating situation because you thought you could get away with it and would not be caught.

'You most probably also got caught up with what you, through immaturity and ill-judgement, thought was an exciting experience.'

'It is clear that these offences were committed as part of one of the most serious criminal enterprises which occurred during the civil disturbances which spread across the capital and beyond last August.'

Johnson will spend just over seven months in prison. This is because she will serve half her sentence before being released on licence, minus 144 days for time spent on a curfew.

She was found guilty of burglary and handling stolen goods last month. The maximum sentence for handling is 14 years.

Throughout the trial Johnson claimed that talk of guns and knives had terrified her into driving convicted robber and 'bad boy' Emmanuel Okubote, 20, and his friends.

She also blamed her descent into lawlessness on being raped by two men in the weeks before the riots - an allegation which went unreported to the police - and on having a mental breakdown after being dumped by her previous boyfriend.

Yesterday the judge told her: 'You were pivotal to this planned criminal enterprise, you provided and drove the car which carried the others both to and from premises which they burgled and outside of which they robbed others of goods stolen only moments before.'

'You drove to pick up the rest of the group and willingly remained with them throughout. On your evidence so much was stolen throughout that night it necessitated trips to safe addresses where goods could be off-loaded.'

The judge also observed that Johnson's reaction to the arrival of the police was to put her foot on the accelerator of her car - despite an officer standing in front of it.

The judge said she had no doubt that Johnson was 'excited' by what she 'perceived to be the thrill of Okubote's world', adding that she had read a letter from her mother which was 'heartfelt and saddening and reflects the tragedy that this case is for both of the defendants and their families'.

Johnson's parents, Robert and Lindsay, who own direct marketing business Avongate Ltd, left court without comment last night.

Exeter University said it was considering the case 'to determine the best way forward with regards to Laura's studies.'

Johnson, who studies English and Italian, was convicted last month along with Edwards of one count of burglary at Comet and one count of handling stolen goods at Currys, but found not guilty of a third count of burglary at a BP petrol station.

- Daily Mail