{"id":396809,"date":"2026-01-29T11:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/396809\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T11:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:54:11","slug":"birmingham-dad-blatantly-shouts-out-ridiculous-things-as-hes-finally-jailed-after-a-year-on-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/396809\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham dad ‘blatantly shouts out ridiculous things’ as he’s finally jailed after a year on run"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Sweeney senior handed himself and is finally serving a jail sentence for a violent family scrap in the Gay Village in 2023\"Thomas<\/p>\n

Thomas Sweeney senior<\/p>\n

A dad accused a judge of being ‘racist’ to travellers as he was jailed following more than a year on the run.<\/p>\n

Thomas Sweeney senior burst into a rant after his claims that he fled Birmingham<\/a> out of fears for his own safety were dismissed.<\/p>\n

Judge Dean Kershaw branded his outburst ‘ridiculous’ as he ordered for him to be taken down to the court cells.<\/p>\n

FULL STORY: Mum of 12 and family on the run after one of the worst Birmingham city centre fights ever seen<\/a><\/p>\n

Sweeney, aged 44, and at least seven other members of his family were involved in a massive scrap in the Gay Village<\/a> in July 2023.<\/p>\n

It was captured on vivid CCTV footage and branded ‘one of the worst disorders’ in Birmingham by Judge Kershaw.<\/p>\n

\"Ellen<\/p>\n

Ellen Sweeney, Thomas Sweeney senior, and Thomas Sweeney junior leave Birmingham Crown Court.(Image: Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live)<\/p>\n

Sweeney, along with his wife Ellen Sweeney, and son Thomas Sweeney jnr admitted violent disorder but pleaded to be granted bail because Thomas jnr was due to get married.<\/p>\n

Judge Kershaw agreed but all three failed to return to court on August 29, 2024 and were suspected to have fled back to Ireland.<\/p>\n

The family, previously of Kitts Green Road, Stechford<\/a> were subsequently sentenced to immediate prison terms in their absence.<\/p>\n

Judge Kershaw has since demanded information about what efforts were being made to track them and earlier this month Thomas jnr was arrested in a car on the M6.<\/p>\n

A few days later the 19-year-old was sentenced to two months for failing to surrender on top of the 28 months he received for the violent disorder in 2023.<\/p>\n

Yesterday (Tuesday, January 28) Thomas snr was hauled to Birmingham Crown Court where it was confirmed he had handed himself to the police last week.<\/p>\n

Thomas Duggan, defending, explained why he went on the run.<\/p>\n

He said: “There were complications within the family and some pressures in the community which meant he didn’t feel safe enough to return to the Birmingham area.<\/p>\n

“Those complications meant his family moved around. There were illnesses in the family and he took part in the caring of….”<\/p>\n

But Judge Kershaw intervened and branded the claims ‘utter nonsense’.<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/p>\n

How a wedding and Met Police blunder allowed ‘coward’ Birmingham family to go on the run<\/a><\/p>\n

Teen finally caught after going on the run for massive family scrap in Birmingham city centre<\/a><\/p>\n

He said: “He didn’t want to serve the time, it’s as simple as that.<\/p>\n

“All of the enquiries, the lies his wife told where she was lying on phone calls.<\/p>\n

“He’s all part of it and he knows it to. In my view he decided he was not going to serve this sentence.<\/p>\n

“He was safe enough to beat up someone in a cowardly fashion in the centre of Birmingham. How unsafe he can feel I don’t know.”<\/p>\n

The judge went on to state that he showed ‘compassion’ in order for the family to attend the wedding but he told Sweeney snr: “I shouldn’t have done that.<\/p>\n

“You couldn’t care less. You were completely uninterested.”<\/p>\n

At that point he had to talk over Sweeney snr who began chuntering from the dock.<\/p>\n

The defendant then burst into a full blown rant after the judge branded his actions in the Gay Village ‘cowardly’.<\/p>\n

Sweeney snr tried to claim his wife had been attacked in the incident as he shouted: “You don’t want to hear the truth, you are racist to the traveller community. You are selfish.”<\/p>\n

Judge Kershaw asked the dock officer to remove him and take him down to the cells.<\/p>\n

He said: “I am not going to continue a hearing with a man ranting and raving, blatantly shouting out ridiculous things to the court.”<\/p>\n

He sentenced Sweeney snr to three months extra on top of the two years and ten months he has now started serving for the Gay Village incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Sweeney senior handed himself and is finally serving a jail sentence for a violent family scrap in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[44367,8968,1343,59,57,58,50,75282,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-396809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-birmingham-city-centre","tag-birmingham-crown-court","tag-courts","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-stechford","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}