A Dundee teenager locked up for 19 months for using Facebook to encourage people to riot in the city centre is to appeal against the sentence.
Liam Allan (19), Benvie Gardens, admitted inciting the event called City Centre Riot at the height of the disturbances in England last summer.
Sheriff George Way told Allan: ”You pled guilty to the very serious charge of incitement to riot, not to having a joke. Once you incite you have no methodology to take it back. You can’t just say it’s an April Fool.”
He sentenced him to 19 months’ detention in a young offenders institute and, as he was led away, family members wept in court.
The Courier understands Allan immediately instructed his legal team to lodge an appeal against Wednesday’s sentence.
His lawyers have 14 days to lodge the appeal at the High Court in Edinburgh and it is expected they will do so early next week.
A court insider said the family had been expecting him to be sent to detention given previous sentences handed out to others charged with the same offence.
”I think they hoped it would be a bit less than that after some of the others got quite a few months knocked off their sentences after appealing,” he said.
Allan admitted creating a public event listing on Facebook on August 9, inciting others to riot within Dundee. He called for people to get ”suited and booted” and to bring ”crowbars, baseball bats, the lot”.
A member of the public called the police after seeing the page and officers set up an incident room to deal with potential public disorder in the city as a result.
He became the first person in Scotland to be arrested for trying to incite riots using Facebook, inviting hundreds of friends to take part.
At a previous hearing depute fiscal Donna Davidson told Dundee Sheriff Court that police had set up a ”major incident room” after being alerted to the page.
She said: ”On August 9 Tayside Police received a telephone call reporting someone had observed the Facebook page entitled City Centre Riot.”
She added: ”At 7.30pm that night police officers traced the accused at home. He was taken to police HQ and interviewed and said it was not meant to be taken literally.
”He said it was just a joke that he and his sister had talked about.”
Allan pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of breaching the peace on August 9 last year.
Solicitor Doug McConnell said Allan had no previous convictions and argued that his case is different to that of two other Dundee teens, Jordan McGinley and Shawn Divin, who were jailed last year over similar Facebook pages.
Both received three-year sentences after admitting starting a page called ”riot in the toon” around a week after Allan’s page was found.
Last month they had those terms cut to 27 months for McGinley and 29 months for Divin after appealing their sentences.
A sheriff in Fife last month also showed leniency to an “exceptionally immature” Kirkcaldy man who tried to start a riot on Facebook.
Stephen Nisbet (20), of Sutherland Place, set up a group page through which, on August 11, he incited others to riot on August 12, of last year.
Nisbet also appeared on a charge of breaking a curfew. He was sentenced to a two-year community payback order and 240 hours of community service, as well as a four-month curfew.