Episode 1

Eight months before the UK’s worst riots in over a decade, award-winning journalist Mobeen Azhar headed to Kirkby, just 7 miles east of Liverpool city centre, to investigate why a peaceful protest outside an asylum seeker hotel turned into a riot.

With the local politicians and the press quick to condemn the violence as racially motivated, Mobeen takes up an open invitation from Bekah, a locally based TikTok true crime reporter, to come to Kirkby to find out what’s really going on. It’s not long before Mobeen is confronted with serious allegations about what a group of recently arrived asylum seekers have supposedly been up to in this small town.

As Mobeen attempts to get to the bottom of whether the allegations are true or not, the consequences of the night of the riot outside the Suites Hotel are playing out in trial at Liverpool Crown Court. A group of defendants have been accused of violent disorder in connection with the riot. If found guilty, they could all face custodial sentences.

As part of the proceedings, the police mention a video that had been circulating online in the days preceding the riot. At first glance, the video of a young man allegedly asking for a schoolgirl’s phone number appears to back up at least one of the allegations levelled at the people staying at the Suites. Could this have been the spark that caused the riot?

Mobeen attempts to uncover more details about the viral video but nobody involved in making, re-posting or promoting the subsequent protest seem to want to talk to him. Meanwhile, after weeks of searching, an asylum seeker who was staying at the Suites Hotel on the night of the riot agrees to speak.