BIRMINGHAM’S top judge has warned that the majority of people who appear in court charged over the riots can expect a jail term.

Judge William Davis QC, The Recorder of Birmingham, said no leniency would be shown to defendants, even if charged with relatively minor offences.

Speaking as the first rioting cases appeared at crown court, he said he wanted to spell out to defendants, their barristers and the public at large what to expect in terms of sentences in the coming months.

He said the riots of August 8 and 9 in Birmingham and London were on “an almost unprecedented scale” and committed by a wide range of people. “No ordinary person could walk the streets of the centre of Birmingham in safety,” he said.

“Lest it be thought that the disorder can be laid wholly or mainly at the door of disaffected youths. More than half of the 530 people arrested were aged 21 or over, with a significant percentage being in their 30s and 40s.

“Offences committed in the context of the events I have described must be met with sentences significantly greater than would be the case had the offences been committed in isolation.

"There is nothing disproportionate about courts sentencing in the context of this kind of disorder in a way that demonstrates that we will do all we can to protect our civil society.”

The judge said those charged with so-called lesser offences of handling goods looted from a shop would be treated with the same seriousness as those who actually stole the goods in the first place.