An army veteran who was part of a mob that attacked a lone black man in Piccadilly Gardens as rival protests erupted in violence has been jailed.

A judge said it was a “genuine tragedy” that father-of-two Colin Brown, from Northern Moor, who was left with PTSD after being shot during a tour in Afghanistan, ended up behind bars. The 37-year-old joined a “racist” mob that breached police barricades erected in Manchester city centre to keep rival groups separate.

They were then involved in a confrontation with a lone man, who was then attacked by the group during a summer of trouble up and down the country.

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The defendant took part in what was described in court as a “far right” protest which gathered Piccadilly Gardens on August 3, but clashed with a group of pro-Palestinian counter-protesters, Manchester Crown Court heard on Tuesday (November 11).

A “large number of police” were deployed to erect metal fences to keep opposing factions apart, but there was “widespread disorder” with the fence being torn down, rockets being thrown and shops being attacked, prosecutor Philip Hall said in instance.

Footage gathered by the subsequent police investigation showed a lone black man being attacked by a group of white men. Brown was part of the group, although he “did not make physical contact” with the black man during the confrontation, Mr Hall said.

He was later caught engaged in a verbal confrontation with a woman of Syrian heritage in which he described the British government as “servants”, the court heard.

As he made his way down Mosley Street, he was involved in another confrontation, this time with a woman wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headscarf. Brown called her “terrorist scum” as the rest of his group verbally abused the woman and her friend, who was of Nigerian descent. Another member of the group called his girlfriend a “n****er”.

He “asked” her to remove the scarf and she held it over her head, which she later told police was “a show of force because I knew that was what they were against”, the court was told .

But the woman almost fell to the ground when Brown grabbed her hand and took her away from the traumatized woman. Another member of the group spat in front of his girlfriend, the court was told.

The woman bumped into Brown later and he confirmed he threw the scarf in a bin, Mr Hall said. Brown returned to Piccadilly Gardens and again hurled abuse at the demonstrators. He was captured shouting “stop raping women or children” and yelling at a rival to “come here you bloody idiot”.

When Brown was later arrested, he insisted that he had intended to join a “peaceful protest” and that he was acting as a “peacemaker”.

He said the sight of the black-and-white scarf he ripped from the woman “triggered” his PTSD after he was shot on a tour in Afghanistan. He said the woman called him a “Nazi”.

Tom Farr, defending, said his client, who has no previous convictions, did not realize the lone black man was being attacked and insisted he was “not involved in any of the physical violence” in Piccadilly Gardens. His client was “absolutely ashamed” of his behavior and had written letters to both the court and the woman whose scarf he yanked.

Brown served in the army for 15 years and decided he wanted to “show solidarity” by taking part in protests after the fatal stabbing of three children in Southport because he had seen children being “slaughtered” in the Middle East, Mr Farr said.

Brown had a “distinguished” career in the army and served in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq, the court was told. Diagnosed with PTSD, he still suffers “flashbacks”, depression and anxiety, Mr Farr said.

After his “honourable discharge” from the army, Brown was left homeless and reduced to “couch surfing” and relying on food banks, the court was told. Pointing to a psychiatric report, Mr Farr said his client had a “complete lack of cognition” as a result of his PTSD diagnosis.

Brown raised more than £2,000 for the Spearhead Foundation, which provides help to army veterans and trains children to box three or four times a week, the court heard.

Judge John Potter told Brown: “It is a real tragedy to find you in a criminal court awaiting sentence for a serious offence. But that’s the reality of the situation you’ve brought upon yourself.”

The judge said Brown was part of the “far-right group” in Piccadilly Gardens. Noting that the defendant insisted he should not be seen as racist, Judge Potter said Brown “chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with others who clearly are” who shouted “racist slogans and aimed violence at people who were not whites”.

“The truth is that you took part in that violence in this disorder,” he said, adding: “Your presence encouraged others to indulge in grotesque acts of racist violence and indeed you are seen later… behaving yourself in such violence”.

Describing the incident in which the defendant ripped off the scarf, Judge Potter said it was “completely inappropriate and grossly abusive and designed by you to demean and humiliate your victim”.

Brown, of Moorcroft Road in Northern Moor, was jailed for two years and four months after admitting violent disorder and a charge of robbery in relation to the scarf. The defendant kissed his family members in the public gallery while he was knocked down.