LONDON — A Briton was ordered jailed for nine years on Sep 6 for arson at a hotel housing asylum seekers in August, by far the longest sentence imposed over a wave of anti-Muslim riots.

Thomas Barley, 27, pleaded guilty to arson with intent to endanger life after stoking a fire in a bin at an entrance to a hotel near Rotterdam in northern England on Aug 4.

Prosecutor Elisha Kay said Barley added wood to an already-flaming industrial bin that was placed in front of a fire door of the hotel while staff and guests sheltered inside.

She said hotel staff barricaded themselves in a panic room and "thought they were going to burn to death".

Barley, who also pleaded guilty to violent disorder and possessing an offensive weapon, was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court by Judge Jeremy Richardson, who said his actions were "suffused with racism from beginning to end".

The judge said Barley was encouraged to join the disorder "by malicious and ignorant posts" on social media.

"You were a leading participant in ignorant, racist attempts at mob rule," he said.

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