Five-year ban for hooligan
A Walsall FC hooligan with a three-year history of public nuisance has been banned from attending matches for five years by Solihull Magistrates' Court.
Jake Hillman, aged 20, followed the club around the country with friends calling themselves the Swift Young Casuals, stirring up violence.
Hillman, who West Midlands Police say was also in Birmingham during riots last month, was a public nuisance at matches.
Magistrate Sally Derry told Hillman she found his behaviour with his 20 to 25 friends appalling.
West Midlands Police applied for the ban – a civil rather than criminal matter – and Hillman consented to it at Solihull yesterday.
Hillman, of Speechley Drive, Rugeley, said: "Since the beginning of the summer I have made a conscious effort to stay away from that sort of scene and distance myself from those sorts of people."
Ms Derry said the ban from any football match in England and Wales would be set at the maximum of five years.
Pc David Mapp described Hillman's antics as organised violence.
"I am pleased with the outcome of the hearing and it's certainly going to put this group to bed," he said after the case at Solihull.
