Pregnant teenager facing jail term following role in Rotherham riots targeting migrant hotel
16 June 2025, 18:08 | Updated: 16 June 2025, 18:16
A pregnant teenager has been told she faces a custodial sentence for her part in rioting in Rotherham last summer.
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Elarna Garner-Abbey, from Doncaster, was 18 when a crowd gathered at the Holiday Inn Express housing Asylum Seekers on August 4,
Now 19, she appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday after pleading guilty to one count of violent disorder in Magistrates.
Large-scale disorder broke out across the UK last summer, with more than 60 police officers left injured when the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham, was attacked.
Video played to the court showed her throwing rocks at police and stoking fires that had been lit by the crowd.
Garner-Abbey was due to be sentenced last Friday, before it was revealed she may be pregnant, so the hearing was adjourned to today.
A doctor’s note confirmed her pregnancy. Her defence said it was unclear how far along she is, but that it is the early stages.
The Recorder of Sheffield Judge Jeremy Richardson took that into consideration, admitting that it is “difficult being pregnant in prison.”
However, the Judge added that that the offence was “so serious, only an immediate custodial sentence” would suffice.
Garner-Abbey will be sentenced on Thursday.
The 2024 Rotherham Riots have seen a string of convictions linked to the unrest, with jail sentences handed down to those involved totalling more than 150 years in prison, data revealed last year.
