The riots and disorder that erupted across the country last summer took many by surprise.

The seaside town of Southport found itself at the epicentre of the crisis, after a brutal and indiscriminate knife attack at a children's dance class on 29 July left 10 injured and claimed the lives of six-year-old Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, aged nine.