The only woman to be charged in connection with last year's Bradford race riots has been jailed for four-and-a-half-years.

Mother-of-four Bernice Dunn, 30, pleaded guilty to a charge of riot at Bradford Crown Court following the mass violence in the city in July.

The court was played a compilation CCTV video which showed the battle between riot police and those on the streets on 7 July last year.

Dunn, of St Paul's Close, Manningham, West Yorkshire was seen at one stage throwing rocks at almost point blank range at a policeman wrestling with a man on the floor.

'Fire ships'

Outlining the prosecution case Timothy Hartley said: "It was a day of sustained public disorder.

"Cars were set ablaze and were used as fire ships."

He described Dunn's attack on the officer making an arrest, saying: "PC Simpson left the crowd of police ranks to arrest a man with a red bandana.

"He went down on to the floor and the defendant and two to three others were very close indeed.

"They hurled stones and one of the rioters escaped being arrested.

"The officer, PC Mark Simpson was badly bruised and his protective helmet was dented and split."

Alcohol and heroin

In one part of the tape Dunn, a former prostitute, was recognised by a local police officer who was heard to say to her: "Bernice Dunn, go home. It will be life."

Mr Hartley added that this was advice she refused to take.

In mitigation, Stephen Wood said Dunn's pre-sentence report may have been the most depressing yet read by the judge.

He added that before her involvement in the riots Dunn had been drinking and had taken heroin.

She was "resigned to her fate" and had expressed regret for her actions during her police interviews, he added.

The court heard that her children, aged nine, eight, six and three, were staying with relatives and that the youngest had recently undergone a kidney transplant.

Previous trial

Mr Wood said: "She was not a ringleader. She was not an instigator. She did not go out that night looking for violence."

Sentencing her, Judge Stephen Gullick said that she would have been given a six-year jail term had it not been for her role as a key prosecution witness in a recent attempted murder trial.

He said: "You gave evidence in the trial of a man who attempted to murder a friend of yours, who was also a prostitute."

He added that in the circumstances he thought a sentence of four-and-a-half years was appropriate.

West Yorkshire Police said that 326 officers were injured during the disturbances which have now led to 219 arrests, in which 80 people have been charged with rioting.