One of the oldest known thugs in the Dover riots has been jailed.

David Ashman, 66, was given an eight-month sentence on Wednesday last week after being seen throwing two missiles.

Ashman had travelled all the way form his home of Wolverhampton Street in Walsall to the scene of two rival demonstrations in Dover on January 30 last year.

He was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court having pleaded guilty to one count of violent disorder.

The court heard that while Ashman was in Dover CCTV captured him near a petrol station in Effingham Street, where a disturbance was taking place.

He was then seen in Folkestone Road throwing two missiles at a rival group and aggressively gesturing towards them.

Detective Inspector Bill Thornton, from Kent Police, said: "The disruption caused by protesters such as Ashman was significant and caused a huge amount of people to fear for their safety while they were trying to go about their daily business.

‘While we respect everybody’s rights to participate in peaceful protest, we cannot accept people using pre-planned demonstrations to cause violent disorder.

‘Our investigation to locate offenders responsible for the disturbances has been thorough and many wrongdoers, including Ashman, have found that they have been unable to evade justice – despite living outside of Kent Police’s area.”

A far right march had taken place in Dover that day, which was countered by anti-fascist protesters.

It led to full-scale rioting with bricks and other missiles being thrown from either end of Effingham Street.

Ashman is the latest in a long line of violent yobs that police have caught up with since.