A woman who accepted a pair of looted shorts from her housemate has had her sentence reduced on appeal.
24 year-old Ursula Nevin was jailed for five months last week, having pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods. Judge Andrew Gilbart QC, decided that the initial ruling had been "wrong in principle". He ordered Nevin to perform 75 hours of unpaid work for the community instead of her prison sentence.
Nevin was in bed at the time of the rioting last week, while her lodger helped herself to clothing and footwear from the Vans store in Manchester city centre.
The District Judge Khalid Qureshi, who had sentenced her to prison, told her she was supposed to be a role model to her two young sons and criticised her for not ordering the stolen goods to be moved out of the house.
Judge Gilbart, however, made the decision to distinguish between people who had received stolen goods and those who had looted them themselves. He addressed his closing remarks to Nevin herself:
"You must have found yourself, in the circumstances of the last week, trapped in a circle of hell. The way you never get into that situation again is to show the courage to say 'no'. I am sure the courts will not be troubled by you again. Leave now and look after your children."
MPs and campaigners have said some of the sentences given to those involved in England's riots were too harsh.
Other rioting-related offences were dealt with on Friday as courts struggled to work through the casework. Reece Donovan, who is accused of robbing the Malaysian student, Ashraf Rossli, of his mobile phone and portable Playstation was remanded on custody after a preliminary hearing. The incident became infamous on YouTube as CCTV showed Rossli being helped up by a group of young men, who then proceeded to mug him.