London riots: Millionaire's daughter Laura Johnson jailed

Johnson

A millionaire's daughter who drove looters around London during the 2011 riots has been jailed for two years. Laura Johnson, 20, of Orpington, south-east London, had denied charges of burglary and handling stolen goods, claiming she was acting under duress. But the judge at Inner London Crown Court said she played "a pivotal role" in law-breaking on 8 August. She was convicted of taking goods from a Comet store and handling a stolen television from a Currys outlet. Johnson was joined in the dock by a teenage boy, who had previously admitted burglary by stealing alcohol and cigarettes from a BP garage in Charlton, south-east London. He can now be named as Christopher Edwards, 17, after the judge lifted an order banning his identification.

Edwards

Edwards was sentenced to 12 months at a young offenders' institution. Passing sentence, Judge Patricia Lees observed that Johnson's reaction to the arrival of the police was to put her foot on the accelerator of her car - despite an officer standing in front of it. She told Johnson and Edwards that their actions added to the overall lawlessness that threatened to overwhelm the forces of law and order. Jurors were told that Johnson drove several looters around various shops during the height of the riots. Her passengers jumped from the car wearing hooded tops, bandanas and balaclavas and loaded it with stolen electronic goods. Johnson - who is reading English and Italian at Exeter University - is a former grammar school pupil who reportedly achieved four A*s and nine As at GCSE. She is the daughter of wealthy couple Robert and Lindsay Johnson, who own direct marketing business Avongate Ltd. In mitigation, her barrister Martin McCartney said she was a bright, intelligent, articulate young woman who was then at a very low ebb and argued she was unlikely to offend again. He said argued that at the time of the offence, placing what she did against the background of who she is, this was completely out of character, adding that it is not beyond the realms of reason that the way she acted might have been affected by the emotional turmoil she was in. Johnson will serve half of her two-year sentence in prison, minus 144 days, due to time spent under a qualifying curfew. Her defence had been to claim she acted under duress because she was afraid of her passengers. culled from BBC