An anti-asylum seeker protester who threw a beer bottle at a police van has been jailed for two years and 11 months.

Keith Silk, 34, armed himself with eggs and the bottle before attending the demonstration in Epping, Essex, with his parents on 17 July 2025.

Up to 500 people gathered outside The Bell Hotel after a migrant living there, Hadush Kebatu, was charged with – and later jailed for – sex offences.

Silk, of Torrington Drive, Loughton, was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court, having been found guilty of violent disorder and criminal damage.

He is the 11th person to be sentenced for involvement in the clashes that day, and the 10th to be jailed.

Prosecutors said the protest had begun peacefully but had descended into "large-scale public disorder" at about 17:30 BST.

It followed the arrival of about 50 counter-demonstrators, which led to clashes among the two groups.

Judge Alexander Mills said cocaine addict Silk had headed to the protest with his mother and father, who was wearing a Knights Templar outfit.

He threw a bottle at a police van and may have accidentally struck a fellow protester with one of his eggs, the judge said.

Prosecutor Harriet Palfreman said Silk had threatened officers and had told one: "We're supporting a rightful cause. You're protecting these wrong uns, mate."

He was said to have warned them: "It's going to get worse, anyway. All the English Defence League are coming down."

Silk was also filmed trying but failing to pull a sign for The Bell Hotel out of the ground.

A statement from a senior police officer read to the court said: "In my 20 years of policing, I have never witnessed this scale of disorder in Essex – and certainly not in a town like Epping."

Peter Pride, in mitigation, said Silk had an anxiety disorder and was experiencing "sensory overload" during the protest.

However, the judge told the defendant: "You chose not only to remain in the situation but to put yourself at the heart of the events."

Members of Silk's family wept in the public gallery as he was jailed by the judge.

The protesters already imprisoned for violent disorder on 17 July 2025 are:

Luke Fleming, of Thaxted Road, Buckhurst Hill, was given a suspended prison term in June of a year and nine months.

All asylum seekers were removed from The Bell Hotel in June.

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