A judge who jailed some of those involved in violent disorder which followed the Southport stabbings has said he received threats after the sentencing was broadcast.

Speaking at a National 999 Day service in Liverpool, which was dedicated to those who responded to riots in Merseyside, Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC told emergency workers a decision had been made to accelerate sentencing hearings for those involved not because of “political pressure”, but because a quick response was needed for a “deterrent effect”.

He said: “The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. There have been some twits online who have posted all sorts of daft things about me and some pretty unpleasant threats have been made towards me and the family.

“The odd dodgy package has arrived at the court containing threats towards me. But that, I’m afraid, goes with the territory of the job.

“There have also been some quite funny posts online as well. Like Jake, from Basingstoke, who wrote on Twitter after the broadcast ‘Judge Menary should consider a side hustle in audiobook narration’.

“I don’t know whether to say this or not but it looks like for at least a weekend I became a gay icon. Gavin from Somerset wrote ‘Who is Judge Menary? What’s his net worth and who is he dating?'”

He said his favourite post came from a social media user in Texas who wrote: “The UK has fallen to savages. The dude with the dead squirrel on his head has just confirmed it.”

Judge Menary said so far in Liverpool there had been sentences for more than 50 people who were involved in violent disorder, which broke out in Southport and later spread to Liverpool and across the country after the knife attack in which three girls were killed on July 29.

Thanking those working in the emergency services, the judge said: “It’s been a busy few weeks but nothing compared to the pressure that so many of you and your colleagues have experienced and regularly experience day in and day out.”

The annual National 999 Day service, at Liverpool Parish Church, was attended by leaders from the city’s faith communities as well as members of the emergency services.

UK Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce spoke along with Deborah Moore, the manager of Spellow Hub library which was set on fire during disorder on County Road in Liverpool, and Alex McCormick, who raised more than £250,000 to repair the library.

The children’s author said the good in the city outweighed the bad, but added: “We’ve learned this summer, surely, that the good needs to be defended and it needs to be vigilant.

“Its defenders are here in this church today, its defenders are you. I wanted to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to you for defending and looking out for the good.”

Lord Mayor of Liverpool Richard Kemp told emergency workers said: “You are the people who, when there is a problem, run into it while the rest of us run from it.

“The supreme irony in Southport was that more than 50 police officers, many of whom earlier in the day had run into save lives, had their bodies damaged by perpetrators including opportunists and chancers.”