A protester previously convicted of hitting Nigel Farage with a placard has now been jailed for throwing a missile at right-wingers during the Dover Riots.

Care worker Andrew Scott had been part of “bellicose and aggressive” groups of left and right wingers who had clashed during the incident in January.

The court heard how he had marched around the town with the left-wing group “as if they were going off to war”.

Judge James O’Mahony told the 41 year old from Margate that CCTV had shown them marching with “smoke, flags, drums and foul language".

“There was sheer hatred on people’s faces of both sides,” he added.

Scott, from Ramsgate Road, had admitted violent disorder after breaking through police lines as officers tried to keep the two groups apart.

Canterbury Crown Court heard he was caught on CCTV throwing a missile over police vans towards rival right-wing protesters.

Prosecutor Paul Valder said Scott had arrived in Dover with a workman’s hard hat and his face covered with a scarf.

But the judge told Scott - who was described by friends as “a gentle non-violent person” – that had he intended no trouble during January’s protests, there would have been "no need to cover your face and wear the hard hat".

He said there had been “sustained violence and a breakdown of law and order on both sides”.

In 2014 Scott was convicted of striking Ukip's Mr Farage over the head with a placard reading: “Nasty Little Nigel”.

He admitted common assault when he appeared before a district judge at Margate magistrates court and was ordered to do 80 hours of unpaid work.

Judge O’Mahony jailed Scott for a year for the Dover violence, telling him: “People who are prepared to use violence will not be tolerated.”