A football hooligan linked to race hate group Combat 18 was yesterday jailed and banned from soccer matches after a judge branded him "a danger to the public".

Andrew Frain, 35, was sent to prison for 14 months after attacking a mounted police officer after fighting broke out among fans during a crunch relegation match between Oxford United FC and Reading in March last year.

Before his latest jailing Frain - a former Grand Hawk in the infamous Ku Klux Klan racist faction - had served a six-month sentence after being found guilty of trying to recruit people into the group. The earlier case also heard that Frain had regularly received publicity magazines from Combat 18, the racist group which has claimed responsibility for the two recent nail bomb attacks in London.

At Reading Crown Court yesterday Frain and his co-defendant, Marcus Foster, 31, were each jailed after a jury found them guilty of violent disorder.

Foster was jailed for 12 months by Judge Mary Jane Mowat and both men were banned from football matches for five years.

Foster, of Atford Road, Reading and Frain, of Walton Close, Woodley, had both denied the charge. Judge Mowat told the defendants: "What ensued was essentially a tussle between a group of between 60 to 100 fans. Violent disorder at football matches is of grave public concern."

She added: "The reputation has been tarnished by behaviour of this kind. You both have significant records for acts of public violence."

During Frain's earlier trial, which took place at the same court in October 1996, the jury was told how a police swoop at his flat uncovered more than 600 racist Ku Klux Klan leaflets and posters.

Story date: Saturday 01 May

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