University tutor Luke Cooper has won £60,000 High Court libel damages over newspaper stories linking him to violence which flared during an anti-education cuts demonstration through London in 2010.
Luke Cooper's reputation had been "as badly trashed" as the capital's Millbank Tower during the November 2010 march, William McCormick QC told Mr Justice Eady and the jury in London.
After a five-day trial, the assistant tutor was awarded £35,000 over a front page Evening Standard article, which appeared the next day, and £25,000 in relation to a follow-up in the Daily Mail.
McCormick said that an Evening Standard front page article meant that Cooper was a ringleader, and planned with others in advance to hijack a peaceful march and turn it into a riot.
The accompanying out-of-context picture, taken from a photo sharing website and showing Cooper at a social event in a pub a couple of years earlier, gave the impression of a man "smiling joyously at the havoc wreaked".
A subsequent Daily Mail story used the same photo and portrayed Cooper as one of the "hard core" who organised the riot at the Conservative Party's headquarters.
Counsel said that Cooper, a socialist who was not afraid to speak out and saw nothing wrong with peaceful protest or direct action, had been grossly libelled.
He was aware there were plans for some form of protest on the 50,000-strong march as he had seen emails to that effect, but had not responded to them and had no part in planning it.
He took no part in the violence or property damage at Millbank, where a fire extinguisher was thrown from the roof, but simply milled around outside with thousands of other students to register their protest.
He was willingly interviewed by an Evening Standard journalist, but claimed that some of what he said was inaccurately reported or omitted.
McCormick said that, after the coverage, Cooper received attacking emails from people who sought him out on the internet, and faced the stress of the launch of disciplinary proceedings at the university which came to nothing.
He told the jury: "It is a myth that libel is just about money, It is not. It is about reputation.
"Luke Cooper's reputation has effectively been as badly trashed as Millbank Tower on November 10 2010.
"He has been accused of being responsible for a serious piece of public disorder - effectively seeking to use others as his pawns to achieve his political aims - and that is severely damaging to his reputation."
Cooper, who is also studying for a PhD in international relations at the University of Sussex, said the great majority of demonstrators were not committing criminal acts and he did not condone the actions of the minority.
Evening Standard Ltd and Associated Newspapers both denied libel and said their allegations were substantially true.
See below for pictures of the Millbank riots: