An Oxford man was among a group of three members of the neo-Nazi group Combat 18 to walk free from court despite disrupting a Bloody Sunday commemoration march.

The men were secretly filmed by the BBC for the documentary MacIntyre Undercover as they marched along shouting 'C, C, C, 18' and 'F*** the IRA' during the march in London's Trafalgar Square on January 30, 1999.

Yesterday Southwark Crown Court heard that a strong police presence prevented mayhem but only after the counter-demonstrators had been pinned against the walls of the South African Embassy. Matthew Osbury, 30, a factory assistant, of Malford Road, Barton, Oxford, William Browning, 31, a carpenter, of south London, and David Haldane, 28, a labourer, of Irvine, Scotland, all admitted using threatening words and behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace.

They were sentenced to 80 hours' community service and ordered to pay £750 each. All three had denied a more serious charge of affray.

Outside the court, Osbury, a father-of-five with another child on the way, punched the air with both fists in joy, while Haldane smiled broadly. Earlier, passing sentence, Judge James Wadsworth said the men had deliberately "behaved badly" and intended to disrupt a lawful march.

"You may have done it for your own believed good reasons but you went to cause a public disturbance which must always be taken very seriously," he said.

The judge said he had been minded to order prison sentences, but having read pre-sentence reports changed his mind.

"I'm bound to say these were good reports," he said. "The question is whether you will continue to behave yourselves."