English Defence League (EDL) protesters have attacked police in Rotherham while demonstrating over the recent revelations about child sexual exploitation in the town.

Three men linked to the demonstration were arrested ahead of the march on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon and remain in custody. A fourth man from Rotherham was also arrested on suspicion of committing a public order offence.

Police erected 10ft (3ft) barricades around the town centre, while extra officers were drafted in from around the country.

South Yorkshire police said officers had been “confronted with missiles and barriers” but said no injuries had so far been reported. Some 1,200 protesters were expected to descend on Rotherham, in what has been described as a political exploitation of the recent abuse findings.

The shock report last month said that although the majority of perpetrators were described as “Asian” by victims, some councillors were nervous about identifying the abusers’ ethnic origins “for fear of being thought racist”.

Weman Bennett of Unite Against Fascism said: “We want justice for the victims, but we don’t want racists exploiting it.” Speaking from the organisation’s small counter-demonstration, Bennett said most of the violence had been between EDL members themselves.

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Four English Defence League (EDL) members have been convicted of a religiously aggravated offence following a Thatcham town centre protest.

The prosecution was brought after up to 20 people, some draped in St George Cross flags and one wearing a rubber pig mask, descended on The Broadway on the night on Friday, February 28. Their target was Hosans kebab van.

Chants of “Muslim groomers off our streets – go back to your own country,” and “no surrender to the Taliban” filled the room at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday as footage from police officers’ body cameras was screened. Naomi Edwards, prosecuting, said: “Protesting is fine and proper but this went beyond what’s acceptable.”

In the dock were 22-year-old Rory Rowbottom of Hartmead Road, Thatcham; Julie Anne Worthington, aged 35, of Russell Road, Reading; 50-year-old Simon Brammer of Haywards Close, Southampton, Hampshire and Gary Hazel, aged 38, of Forsyth Gardens, Bournemouth, Dorset. A fifth defendant, 44-year-old Edward Cullerne Scovell of Donnington Gardens, Reading, failed to turn up and was convicted in his absence.

They had been charged with a Section 5 offence of religiously aggravated harassment but a scheduled three-day trial was avoided after all but Mr Hazel – who denied the offence – admitted a lesser charge of using religiously aggravated, threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

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Vile racist thugs drove an Asian family out of their new home as they tried to move in. The Ali family pulled up outside their new house in Elswick, Newcastle, only to be greeted by a seething gang of young yobs.

Boxer Daniel McStay [pictured] and five or six youths started punching and kicking their car, telling them to get off “their estate” and threatening to kill them.

Terrified Mr Ali, who had his wife and three daughters in the car, frantically began reversing to try to get away as the gang kicked his car. One of them threw a pint glass of beer at the back of his car, which smashed showering the car with alcohol and glass.

Fifteen minutes later McStay and two youths subjected another man to a racist attack as he waited in his car for his friend outside Elswick mosque.

As McStay, 22, was jailed for eight months, Mr Ali told how the incident had left him and his family scared to move in. He said: “We had been looking forward to moving in to the new house but now we do not wish to do so. My daughters and wife are extremely upset, we have not been involved in an incident like this before. My family have been racially targeted for no reason. The damage to my car can be repaired, however mentally we have all suffered.”

Newcastle Crown Court heard the family were taking furniture to the house on Brittania Place, Elswick, around 3pm on March 23, ahead of moving in. Just after Mr Ali, his wife and daughters, aged, 10, 18 and 19, pulled up, McStay and the others approached from behind, swigging alcohol.

Neil Pallister, prosecuting, said one of them shouted: “You better not be moving here or we will kill you, this is our estate.” There followed a tirade of vile racist abuse and a 17-year-old started punching the driver’s side window shouting “Get out of here or I will kill you.”

Mr Pallister said: “All of the males were involved in the racial abuse and McStay joined in. Clearly Mr Ali and his family were in great fear and he began reversing his car down the street and turned round to drive away. As he reversed his car the group began kicking his car and ran after him and his family. One of them threw a pint glass which hit the rear window of the car, smashing glass and showering the car with alcohol as they drove away.”

After getting clear of the attack and reporting it to police, the family saw their car had been dented, causing hundreds of pounds of damage. Mr Pallister said: “They were too scared and frightened to move into the address.”

Just fifteen minutes later McStay and two youths targeted an 18-year-old as he waited in his car outside Elswick mosque. He was racially abused and told to leave the area and also had his car kicked.

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