Vancouver Stanley Cup rioter gets 17 months in jail

Ryan Dickinson has become first person to be sentenced in Vancouver's 2011 Stanley Cup riot, getting 17 months for throwing a newspaper box onto a police car windshield and smashing a store window.

The sentence was handed down Thursday in Vancouver.

Crown prosecutors had asked the court for a sentence as long as 18 months because Dickinson, who was 20 at the time of the incident,was on bail in connectionwith an assaultchargeat the time of the riot on June 15, 2011.

Dickinson's lawyerhad asked for a sentence of one year.

The sentence for his involvement in the riot was 16 months and B.C. provincial courtJudge Malcolm MacLean added one more month for the breach of bail conditions.

Dickinson was given 3.5 months credit for his time in pretrial custody.

In passing the sentence, MacLean said Dickinson was not alone in wrecking unmarked police cars, but he was one of the leaders and may have spurred others.

Dickinsons lawyer had said in a pre-sentence hearing that Dickinson had got "caught up in the moment" during the riot.

But Maclean said Thursdaythatevidence didnot show Dickinson got caught up ina momentary lapse of judgment and that his actionswere conscious anddeliberate.

Dickinson had choices andhad a chance to walk away many times, butdid not, MacLean said.

Vancouver police Chief Constable Jim Chu said he was satisfied with the outcome.

"The sentence that was handed down today is a victory for the victims and citizens of Vancouver," Chu told a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Dickinson, of Coquitlam, B.C., pleaded guilty in January to taking part in the riot that swept through downtown Vancouver after the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals, which the Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins.

To date, a total of 350 charges have been recommended against 125 accused. The Crown has approved 141 criminal charges against 52 of the suspected rioters.