{"id":769567,"date":"2026-09-13T17:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T17:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/769567\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T17:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T17:58:09","slug":"police-release-images-of-six-men-sought-after-violent-disorder-in-portsmouth-portsmouth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/769567\/","title":{"rendered":"Police release images of six men sought after violent disorder in Portsmouth | Portsmouth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police have released images of six men they would like to speak to after violent disorder in Portsmouth<\/a> last week that left seven officers injured.<\/p>\n

About 200 people gathered at Eastney Marina<\/a> on Sunday night after a small boat carrying asylum seekers arrived on the south coast having crossed the Channel. The activists dispersed the following day in the early hours.<\/p>\n

Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary said seven police officers were injured and treated at the scene, while vehicles belonging to the Coastguard and Border Force were damaged.<\/p>\n

The force said it reviewed \u201chundreds of hours\u2019 worth\u201d of footage from the disorder and released images of six men it believes \u201ccan assist our investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The first person charged in connection with the demonstration in the city appeared in court on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

Del Leon Somerville, 42, from Paulsgrove, Portsmouth, appeared at the city\u2019s magistrates court charged with violent disorder and assaulting a police constable.<\/p>\n

A 16-year-old boy from Waterlooville was also arrested on suspicion of violent disorder in connection with last Sunday\u2019s events. He has been released on bail until 12 December.<\/p>\n

Anti-immigration activists returned to the streets of Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon, where they faced counter-protests from anti-racism groups.<\/p>\n

Tony Rowlinson, assistant chief constable, said the scenes at Eastney Marina had gone beyond peaceful protest. \u201cViolence and criminal damage have no part in peaceful protest,\u201d he said. \u201cClearly events on Sunday evening were not peaceful protest, rather violent public disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowlinson said officers had worked to protect people in the area and warned that police would pursue those responsible after reviewing footage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality of public order policing is that arrests at the time are not always possible, especially where evidence may need to be reviewed to clearly identify who is responsible for offences,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that none of the seven injured officers had been seriously hurt, but said they \u201cdid not deserve to be assaulted\u201d while policing the demonstration.<\/p>\n

Police also said they were investigating online threats and abuse directed at officers and staff from partner agencies after the disorder.<\/p>\n

The force has appealed to anyone who recognises the six men to contact police on 101 or report information online, quoting reference 44260435943.<\/p>\n

Rowlinson said: \u201cIf you break the law we will take action against you and where it is feasible to do so seek a prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have released images of six men they would like to speak to after violent disorder in Portsmouth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-769567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769567","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=769567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}