Riot organiser who said "all mosques must burn" loses appeal

Plus: Arson attack on century old shelter; funding boost for Queenscourt Hospice; and What's On This Week

Jamie Lopez

and

The Southport Lead

Aug 03, 2025

∙ Paid

Hello and welcome to the 58th edition of The Southport Lead.

Earlier this year, I wrote for the The Lead’s national title about how taxi driver Andrew McIntyre played a key role in whipping up anger and hatred to encourage angry mobs to lead the riot outside the mosque last year. McIntyre, who would later be found to have a copy of Mein Kampf at his home, repeated tactics he’d previously tried elsewhere in Merseyside but this time gained far more traction.

His case came to court this week as he bid to have his seven-and-a-half year jail sentence reduced. After the case, I spoke with HOPE not hate who explained the impact his actions had.

Also in today’s edition, we have news of new funding for Queenscourt Hospice and an appeal after a 120-year-old Victorian shelter was destroyed by mindless arsonists. And for paying subscribers only, Andrew Brown has the definitive guide to events in the town in the coming week.

Taxi driver who called for war loses appeal against sentence

By Jamie Lopez

A man who played a key role in encouraging people to riot in Southport has failed in a bid to have his sentence cut.

Andrew McIntyre, from Rufford, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after admitting encouraging violent disorder and criminal damage and possession of a bladed article in a public place.

The Lead has previously reported on how the taxi driver, who was motivated by hatred and a far right ideology, used TikTok and Telegram accounts to whip up hatred and set the original time and location for the riot.

The extent of his role in attracting people to attack Southport’s mosque - based on lies about the killer’s identity - had been uncovered in investigations by anti-racism campaign group HOPE not hate.

His case returned to court this week where judges disagreed with his lawyer’s arguments he should have been given more credit for his guilty pleas - which only arrived shortly before a trial was due to begin.

According to HOPE not hate, whose investigative work helped bring McIntyre to justice, his role in organising the disorder is largely underappreciated. While there are a range of factors which led to people taking part, he was central in the actual organisation.

A representative of the group, who we have chosen to call David as he is remaining anonymous for fear of reprisals, told The Southport Lead: “His role in whipping up the violence was probably far more significant than has really been acknowledged. The Southport Wake Up group was key in all of what happened.”

Within hours of the attack which took the lives of three young girls, rumours circulated social media about the killer’s identity and Telegram, which allows people to message anonymously, became central to the organisation of the riots.

Using the handle “Stimpy”, McIntyre called for a demonstration on St Luke’s Road, Southport, at 8pm the following day. In quick succession, he also created a TikTok account and Telegram channel to promote the protest, calling the latter “Southport Wake Up”.

The location was a short walk away from both the site of the attack and the town centre vigils which were happening the same day but the real reason for this choice was the presence of a mosque.

In an accompanying post, “Stimpy” made his intentions clear, captioning a Google Maps screenshot “time for a 🔥 TIME FOR WAR”

He had previously made similar attempts to attack minority groups in Knowsley without success, while he had also posted in support of Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage. This time, however, he caught the attention of large numbers.

It would be the opening of McIntyre’s short, but influential, campaign as the earliest instigator of the violence that would grip the UK for the next fortnight. The Southport Wake Up channel gained over 13,000 subscribers in the week that followed, and its content set an apocalyptic and violent tone that would see disorder in Liverpool, Blackpool and Rotheram among other areas.

According to David, “the level of violence in his discussions and that he wanted went far beyond a few social media posts”. Messages sent by McIntyre included “THE MOSQUES MUST BURN” and encouragement for “protestors” to bring molotov cocktails to use against their targets.

The following Monday, McIntyre attempted to take his campaign nationwide. He produced a list of 39 targets across England, mostly the offices of asylum services, to be targeted on the evening of August 7. He posted this list to the Southport Wake Up channel alongside flame emojis and encouraged the prospective rioters to conceal their identity as he rallied, “THEY WON’T STOP COMING UNTIL YOU TELL THEM… NO MORE IMMIGRATION”.

David added: “The list he created of the target locations, a lot of people think that was made up but it was real. It led to schools having to close and created fear across communities.” For many of those in the areas listed, this fear lasted days, weeks and even months.

McIntyre’s influence wasn’t just limited to his own posts but also the network and space he’d created for others to incite anger and violence. “He’s running these channels, he also was the moderator of a lot of chats where other people expressed violence threats,” David explained. “He enabled these.”

On August 5, a day after two separate mob attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers, he shared a video of the 2019 Christchurch mosque terror attack, coupled with a caption lauding the shooter: “WHITE LEGEND. FUCK ISLAM. FUCK JEWS”.

In reply to another Telegram user who suggested that civil war might soon break out in the UK, McIntyre said: “I say a prayer every night asking only for this”.

The combination of McIntyre’s determination to spread hatred and his strategies of quickly switching through anonymous accounts fuelled an urgency to track down and identify him.

With little way of tracing Telegram accounts, Hope not hate’s team instead undertook the arduous task of scrutinising the content of every message posted by the Southport Wake Up channel and the accounts he used to moderate the accompanying chat group, searching for anything that we could use as a lead.

While doing so, they noticed that four of the accounts used the word “eiy” which was seemingly used instead of “aye” and was unfamiliar to the anti-facism group.

This discovery allowed Hope not hate to search archived messages from UK-based, far-right Telegram chats and identify another eleven accounts belonging to McIntyre, some dating back as far as 2021. This led to further clues such as an unusual spelling of a racial slur and the use of “abaa” instead of about.

McIntyre directly incited violence and damage

While neither were unique to him, they are both used rarely enough that it enabled other deleted accounts to be uncovered. Eventually, 155 Telegram accounts belonging to McIntyre and 13 others across YouTube, TikTok and Twitter were found and older ones contained clues about his location.

Small details and geo-locating backgrounds of photographs enabled the group to track down his exact flat and information was handed to the police one week after the riots. Within a couple more days, McIntyre was arrested.

During the search of his home, weapons and a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf were found. He initially denied any guilt but changed his pleas shortly before a trial was due to take place.

The Court of Appeal hearing, which McIntyre watched on a video link from HMP Garth, heard an argument that these pleas should have resulted in a shorter sentence than the seven-and-a-half years, which is the second longest given to anyone involved in the riots.

But the argument fell flat. As reported by the BBC, Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mrs Justice Yip and Sir Robin Spencer, said: "The applicant incited violence and criminal damage by many people at different locations on multiple occasions.

"He thereby threatened public safety, promoted widespread damage to property and exposed police officers to serious injury. He boasted about the scale of disorder which disfigured Southport and other towns and cities. Throughout, his conduct was racially motivated.

"If the applicant wanted greater credit for his pleas, he could and should have entered those pleas at an earlier stage. He did not do so. Instead, he delayed until it suited him to enter them, and even then, he continued to contest aspects of the claims against him."

£400k boost for Queenscourt Hospice

Queenscourt Hospice will be given £400,000 from the government as calls continue for a reform of funding.

The hospice successfully applied for a share of a £75m pot of funding designated to help hospices deliver major upgrades and enhancements. Currently, it only receives 21% of its income from the NHS and relies on fundraising for the rest.

More than 170 hospices across England will receive a share of the funding which the government says is the largest cash injection ever and will be used for a range of purposes including creating separate families rooms, creating communal lounges, and installing solar panels to cut energy costs.

Minister for Care Stephen Kinnock said: “Hospices play a vital role in our society by providing invaluable care and support when people need it most. At this most difficult time, people deserve to receive the best care in the best possible environment with dignity.

“I have seen first-hand how our funding is already making a real difference to improving facilities for patients and families. This additional funding will deliver further upgrades, relieving pressure on day-to-day spending.

“End-of-life care is crucial to our 10 Year Health Plan and our fundamental shift of moving more care out of hospital and into the community. We will continue to support hospices so they can deliver their vital work.”

The new cash injection is for the financial year 2025 to 2026 and will be distributed by Hospice UK to hospices. Hospices have been allocated a pot of funding and will be able to proceed with upgrades, invoicing Hospice UK once work has been completed.

Toby Porter, CEO of Hospice UK, said: “While this one-off investment has been very welcome, it’s critical that we continue to work with the government to secure long-term reform to ensure hospice care is there for everyone who needs it, whoever and wherever they are.”

Century-old shelter destroyed in ‘despicable’ arson attack

An arson attack which destroyed a Victorian shelter has been described as “despicable”.

A shelter located outside Southport Golf Links, on Park Road West, was set on fire in the early hours of Monday and left completely burned out. Fire crews spent around 45 minutes dealing with the blaze and Sefton Council is now tasked with how to repair or replace the structure.

An investigation is under way with police asking for anyone with information to come forward. Community Inspector Graham Fisher said: “We are working with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to understand what caused the fire, but believe it was a deliberate act of mindless vandalism.

“The Victorian shelters along the Promenade are iconic structures in Southport which should be valued. They are part of the beautiful surroundings for people to enjoy and take a rest while they walk along the area of the seafront.

“The shelters are more than 120 years old, so for one to be destroyed in such a manner is despicable.

“I ask residents and businesses in the locality to please check your CCTV and doorbell footage and contact us if they think there it has captured anyone acting suspiciously at around that time or causing fires in areas.

“If you have anti-social behaviour or criminality in your area let us know and we will take action.”

Anyone with information should is asked to contact Merseyside Police’s social media desk via X @MerPolCC or on Facebook ‘Merseyside Police Contact Centre’. Alternatively, reports can be made online or via or by calling 101 and quoting reference 25000627196.

What’s On This Week - August 3-10

This is an exciting week ahead for Southport! Our recommendations on what to do, thanks to Andrew Brown, continue below for paid subscribers…

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