Group 4 security officer Chris Barry told a jury how he heard a detainee asking for a light to set him on fire during a riot at Campsfield Immigration Detention Centre.

Mr Barry was one of a number of security officers caught up in a crowd of 20 to 30 detainees just after the disturbance started at the centre in Langford Lane, Kidling- ton, on August 20 last year. He told Oxford Crown Court: "A liquid was poured over my head and my shoulders. Somebody said 'get a light, this one's going to burn'.

"It felt hot and smelled of a chemical nature. Due to the sting of the liquid, I closed my eyes and rolled up into a ball.

"The next thing I remember is waking up on the floor on the other side of the door. A nurse was tending to me until I came round fully."

Mr Barry said earlier he saw Sambou Marong, 17, attacking a door with a plastic two-litre bottle full of liquid and Sunny Ozidede, 30, was kicking the door before he came past him with the bottle. He described how detainees had gathered in a crowd saying they had had enough after officers tried to remove two immigrants from the centre.

He told the jury: "We seemed to be dragged where they wanted us to go. We just felt trapped and tried sticking together.

"There was a lot of shouting. Racist comments like 'kill the whites'.

"I felt frightened. My belt was held and I was punched and kicked several times from behind."

Ozidede, Marong, Edward Onabanjo Agora, 27, Stanley Nwaidike, 22, Harrison Tubman, 19, Lucky Agbebaku, 28, John Quaquah, 32, and Enahoro Esemuze, 26, all deny riot and violent disorder.

The trial continues.

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