The mother of a 17-year-old convicted of killing a pensioner during the London riots has been found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
Darrell Desuze was convicted of fatally hitting a man during last summer’s unrest.
His mother, 31-year-old Lavinia Desuze of Hounslow, west London, attempted to cover his tracks by destroying the T-shirt and hoody he was wearing during the attack.
Richard Mannington Bowes died after being punched by Desuze in Ealing last year. The 68-year-old was attempting to put out a fire at the time.
The victim suffered brain damage when his head hit the pavement. He died three days later in hospital.
After recognising her son on CCTV, Lavinia Desuze set about cutting her son’s clothing. It is believed she then discarded them in local dustbins.
Son and mother are scheduled to be sentenced at London Crown Court in April. The offence carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Speaking during the trial, Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Gary Dolby said: "Although it is a mother's instinct to protect her child, Lavinia Desuze's actions were wholly inappropriate and criminal."
"In a bid to try and ensure her son would not be caught for the crimes he had committed, Desuze destroyed the recognisable clothing he had been wearing.
"This act could have had a detrimental effect on the case against her son if it had been the primary evidence available."
Darrell Desuze has previously pleaded guilty to violent disorder and burglary at William Hill, Tesco Express, Blockbusters and Fatboys Thai restaurant.
Mr Justice Saunders said the teenager, in terms of consequences, committed the most serious crime during the riots.
Desuze, who a year before the riots enjoyed a school trip to the Metropolitan Police's riot training centre in Gravesend, Kent, where he watched a simulated riot with officers pelted with bricks, still faces a charge of murder but the Crown will not pursue it and it is expected to lie on file.
The youth, wearing sunglasses and a distinctive top saying "Robbers and Villains", was caught on camera kicking in the glass doors of a shopping centre before joining a mob that attacked heavily outnumbered police with missiles around Spring Bridge Road.
Desuze threw his full weight behind a punch to Mr Bowes's jaw, buckling his legs, knocking him unconscious and backwards where his head took the full force of impact on the road.
The police were "simply unable to reach Mr Bowes for some minutes because of the violence against them", said the prosecution.