Baton-wielding Kingsgate gang member locked up

A GANG member who chased a rival gang through the Kingsgate shopping centre with a baton has been locked up.

Thomas Creaghan was the first of his gang to enter the busy shopping centre and start running after another gang in what shoppers believed was a terrorist attack February 3 this year.

The 20-year-old, of Langdale Drive, Grove Place, Huddersfield, knocked a child to the ground as he did so.

A 17-year-old male who got involved in the incident and picked up a wet floor sign was also sentenced yesterday.

Five men have already been locked up for four months each for their part in the incident, which was captured on CCTV footage.

Some of those involved are believed to be linked to rival gangs called the Dalton Crew and BBD, which stands for Bradley, Brackenhall, Deighton.

Leeds Crown Court previously heard how the ‘large-scale public disorder’ had left families with children running in fear.

Camille Morland, prosecuting, said: “It took place while it was busy with parents and children. As a consequence of this behaviour, people ran in panic.

“Some took shelter in a container used by a car wash business.

“Witnesses thought it was a terrorist attack. A child was knocked to the floor. The shopping centre was closed for a period of time for public protection.”

One man said: “My children thought that their mother was going to be killed because we had just dropped her off in town.”

Creaghan and others entered the shopping centre’s ground floor and went upstairs to a lobby.

Ms Morland said Creaghan collided with a child due to his involvement in the disorder and Judge Neil Clark replied: “Well it wasn’t because he was walking about with a shopping trolley, was it?” Thomas Creaghan has been sent to a young offenders institute after chasing a rival gang with a baton through Kingsgate shopping centre

Creaghan, who was wearing a black and red hood, looked at the child on the floor and ran away and the child’s father had to pick him up.

She said Creaghan and his gang of 11 left the shopping centre and he got into a black car on Byram Street which left the town centre at speed.

Both defendants pleaded guilty to violent disorder.

Creaghan, who has a previous conviction for robbery, also pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon.

Roger Brown, mitigating for Creaghan, said he has ‘achieved a break’ with the people he was previously associating with.

He said his family described how he has ‘deliberately changed his links’ with those people and ‘formed other links with more respectable people who don’t get involved in crime.’

He said Creaghan recently became the carer for his grandmother which ‘demonstrates a selflessness’ and receives a carer’s allowance.

Mr Brown said Creaghan took advice from the National Careers Service and started an online business with another person to sell tracksuits. He said his client was one of the first defendants in the group to plead guilty.

Amy Levitt, mitigating for the minor, said he described picking up the wet floor sign as being ‘a very foolish and stupid act.’

She also said he lacks the emotional intelligence to separate himself from such situations and is trying to get back into the education system.

Creaghan was sentenced to 22 months in a young offenders institute, but he will have to serve less than half of that as he will get credit for abiding by an electronic curfew while he was on bail.

The minor, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, will be subject of a 12-month intensive supervision programme.

The last remaining defendant, 23-year-old Mccauley Jackson, of Well Grove, Sheepridge, who brandished a machete during the incident, will be sentenced on December 20.