Ricky Jones, 58, drew his finger across his throat and called demonstrators “disgusting Nazi fascists” at an anti-racism protest in east London last August following the Southport murders.
Jones, a borough councillor in Dartford, Kent, from 2019, had been warned by his party to stay away from the event in Walthamstow, and was suspended the day after the incident.
Jones, of Dartford, who denied one count of encouraging violent disorder, told police he was “sorry” he made the comments “in the heat of the moment”, and had not intended for them to be “taken literally”, the court had earlier heard.
A video of Jones speaking to a cheering crowd went viral on social media after the protest.
The demonstration had been organised in response to plans for a far-right march outside nearby Waltham Forest Immigration Bureau, jurors at Snaresbrook Crown Court were told.
It followed the nationwide violent disorder that occurred last summer after the Southport murders when Axel Rudakubana killed three girls and attempted to murder eight others at a summer holiday Taylor Swift-themed event.
Prosecutor Ben Holt said Jones used “inflammatory, rabble-rousing language in the throng of a crowd that we will hear described as a tinderbox”.
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