A football steward live-streamed himself smearing and slapping raw bacon over a mosque door in a racially aggravated attack.

In the "provocative and offensive" video shared on his Bigo app account, which has 12,000 followers, Marcus Edwards could be seen holding a rasher in one hand and then wiping it over the glass and handle of the entrance to the Nasir Mosque in Gillingham.

Fuelled by alcohol, the 44-year-old could be heard telling his viewers "I'm going to slap the bacon on the mosque, 100%" while also repeatedly making racial and foul-mouthed comments.

These included using words such as "P***" and "tramps", referencing deaths of Palestinians, and stating he "did not give a f*** about mosques" and would "trash one every day".

The Gillingham resident even bragged that he could "get away with it", and audibly calculated that any time he would have to spend behind bars would be as little as a few weeks.

But Maidstone Crown Court heard that the mosque president, Safir Bhatti, was alerted to what was going on by an anonymous caller and he was later able to hand over videos of the live stream to police.

Edwards was also captured on CCTV with his "live" phone in his hand as he smeared the bacon across the door and, once arrested, a video depicting his conduct was discovered on his device in which he could be heard repeatedly saying "Wax on, wax off" and laughing.

Now, just hours before he was due to be interviewed for a steward's job at Gillingham Football Club, he has been jailed for what a judge described as his "expression of contempt and antagonism".

It was, however, made clear throughout the sentencing hearing on Friday that although the timing of his actions was "quite extraordinary", they were not part of the wider "civil unrest" that has been experienced throughout the country in the wake of the Southport tragedy.

The umbrella of crimes being prosecuted as part of this are under the "Operation Hockey" police investigation.

This was accepted by the prosecution and the judge, despite the case being committed to the crown court by magistrates within 24 hours after he had pleaded guilty to an offence of racially aggravated criminal damage.

The dad-of-three was told however that had his offending been under the Operation Hockey police investigation, his sentence would have been measured in years.

The court heard that Edwards, of Gillingham Road, took to live-streaming his attack on the mosque in the early hours of Sunday, August 11.

Following his arrest, however, he denied he was responsible, saying he had been drinking and then fallen asleep.

"He was shown stills of the perpetrator and images of clothing seized from his property," said prosecutor Martin Yale.

"He laughed and said it was not him, that the hat and trainers could be bought anywhere and it was just a coincidence that they matched.

"He watched the CCTV and said it wasn't him and 'could be anyone'. He was asked about how he felt at what was being alleged and he said he didn't care because he was no longer a Muslim."

The court heard that Mr Bhatti had provided a "rather stoic" victim impact statement in which he said it was not the first time the mosque had been subjected to attacks.

He also described Edwards's behaviour as "the childish act of one person acting in ignorance".

Stacey-Lee Holland, defending, said Edwards was remorseful and wanted to apologise for the upset he had caused to those at the mosque and those of the Muslim faith.

He attended the hearing via prison video link and throughout much of the detail outlined by the prosecution he sat with his head slumped on a desk in front of him.

But it was said on his behalf that his 21 previous convictions for 62 offences included none that were racially-related, and his live stream that night was "an attack on an individual" who had been trolling him on Bigo rather than the wider Muslim community.

Ms Holland told the court that the majority of followers on the social media platform are in fact 'bots', with as many as 10 to 100 for every real person.

Arguing that Edwards may have been streaming to as little as eight people that night, she said among them was someone who had been repeatedly abusing him online over several weeks for abandoning his faith in the wake of his mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer.

Explaining the reason for the offending, Ms Holland said: "This was not part of the current situation and was not intended to stir up racial hate, nor was it a call for action in terms of religion or race

"Mr Edwards became upset and angry and all he knew about this person, was that he was a Muslim....It was an attack intended to upset him.

"His actions therefore are not directed at the Muslim community as a whole. They were simply an intention to aggravate and annoy this person and the only way he knew how to, given he knew that man was a Muslim.

"It was not intended to stir up racial hatred but an extremely ill-timed attack against the single thing he knew about him.

"Having been a Muslim himself, he knew this would be the thing to aggravate and incite him to stop the attack on him."

Referring specifically to the widespread disorder that has erupted since the alleged murders in Southport, Ms Hollands continued: "Not all cases which come before the courts with a racial or religious hate crime element, either in the last few weeks or next few months, will be inciting hatred or part of the civil unrest which we are seeing in communities up and down the country.

"That may not be a popular view but it is a fact. This case is one of those not linked to the civil unrest”.

The court heard that Edwards had "fallen to pieces" after his mother's death and as a result had abandoned his faith, turned to drink and lost his job as a football steward in London and the south east.

Ms Hollands said any immediate jail term would see him lose his home and impact on his eight-year-old daughter whose treatment for a medical condition relied on him transporting her to hospital appointments twice a week.

She also said that Edwards had a job interview lined up "this weekend" at the Gills.

But passing sentence, Judge Julian Smith said that "inevitable consequences" had to follow such a crime.

He also told Edwards that he "perhaps did not deserve the so eloquent and generously-spirited response" from the mosque president in his impact statement.

Jailing him for six months, the judge said: "The assertion has been made this was some kind of personal conflict between you and an individual hostile towards you.

"You are adamant that is the foundation for your conduct. But the videos and recordings paint a more concerning picture.

"The most serious aspect of this case is that it was an offence that was targeted in its nature. It's not about the damage that was caused, certainly not the monetary value of putting it right.

"This behaviour was calculated and intended to cause offence. Anyone who saw it would have been offended. Yours was an expression of contempt and antagonism.

"This was not a childish act, ill-conceived and ill-judged in a drinking session. This was a broadcast live feed using language of the most profoundly offensive nature in the context and circumstances that were intended to offend and effectively did so.

"I accept it could not have been 12,000 (followers) and your motivation was more personal, but your timing and context in which you did this is of the gravest concern.

"Your views were not limited to the person. This was a more broad condemnation of the features of that religion."

As part of his sentencing remarks, Judge Smith said the case had been committed to the crown court as a result of "excessive caution" by magistrates "for fear it had features" of others being investigated and prosecuted under Operation Hockey.

However, he told Edwards: "This is not one of those cases and not a case that you were part and parcel of conduct intended to provoke wider and similar unrest, although your timing in identifying and picking on that mosque was quite extraordinary.

"But I don't want there to be any misunderstanding. Had I been presented with evidence that went to show that that offending had all the hallmarks of that directed towards mosques, Muslims, worshippers and mosques as a whole, and to ferment and generate hostility and anger and to provoke violence, you would have been facing a sentence that would have been starting in years."

The maximum sentence for racially aggravated criminal damage is 14 years.