Southport rioter hit in groin by brick in viral video is jailed
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Brian Spencer, 40, was seen taunting police before incident that online commenters labelled ‘instant karma’. A total of 500 people will be spending Christmas in prison for their part in the summer riots, after a rioter who went viral in an “instant karma” video when he was hit in the groin with a brick became the latest to be sentenced.
![[Brian Spencer has been sentenced to two years and six months]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/10eb80df3a7ff4bc3731e6cccc8cb332eb6be3ef/0_213_520_345/master/520.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Brian Spencer was seen on the clip taunting police and gyrating his hips, while he was at the centre of the riot in Southport on 30 July, which was triggered by the deaths of three girls in the seaside town. In the clip, which attracted hundreds of thousands of views, the 40-year-old was hit in the head with a brick thrown by another person, stumbled towards the line of rioters and took another brick to the groin, in what commenters described as “instant karma” and “justice served”.
Others said the video appeared “straight out of a Monty Python skit” and that it “gets better every time”. The painter and decorator pleaded guilty to violent disorder as well as racially/religiously aggravated harassment for an offence the following day, when he verbally abused a Polish man while waiting for treatment for his injuries in hospital.
Liverpool crown court heard how he had acted like a “general”, ordering other rioters around, before he was injured. He was then put in an ambulance by police. On Monday, Judge Pierpoint sentenced Spencer to two years and six months, saying he had been “enjoying the chaos” and had “antagonised the police”.
