A 30-year-old man sobbed in court as he became the first person to appear before magistrates following disorder in South Yorkshire over the weekend.
Curtis Coulson, 30, wiped away tears with a tissue throughout his 20-minute-long appearance at Sheffield Magistrates Court on Monday.
Man Sobs In Court As He Was Charged Over Weekend Disorder In Sheffield
He denied one charge of affray and was told he will go on trial at the same court on September 20. The charge relates to an incident which was caught on CCTV and shown to District Judge James Gould.
Coulson, of Water Slacks Close, Sheffield, is alleged to have approached a woman with a stick, which had come from a broken placard, outside Sheffield City Hall, and waved it in front of her in a threatening manner while masked.
Flanked by one security guard, the defendant became even more upset in the glass-fronted dock when Judge Gould refused him bail and remanded him in custody.
Dressed in a zipped-up black water-proof jacket, he called out to his mother, who was in court, as he was led from court.
He will next appear for a hearing on August 12.
An anti-immigration protest was planned for Sheffield City Hall on Sunday as part of a series around England, many of which turned violent.
But social media appeared to show that only a handful of protesters turned up in the city centre where they were met by a much larger anti-fascist demonstration.
