A university tutor has won High Court libel damages of £60,000 over newspaper stories linking him to violence during an anti-education cuts demonstration in London.

Luke Cooper, who is completing a PhD in international relations at the University of Sussex, told a High Court jury and Mr Justice Eady that his reputation was "as badly trashed" as the Millbank Tower during the November 2010 march.

After a five-day trial, the 27-year-old assistant tutor was awarded £35,000 over a front page Evening Standard article, which appeared the next day, and £25,000 for a follow-up in the Daily Mail.

Mr Cooper, a member of the socialist youth organisation Revolution, complained that the first story alleged he was a ringleader who planned with others to hijack a peaceful march.

The second portrayed him as one of the "hard core" who organised the riot at the Conservative Party's headquarters.

He also complained an "out-of-context" picture, which was taken from a photo sharing website and showed him in a pub a couple of years earlier, was chosen to give the impression of a man grinning at the havoc wreaked.

Evening Standard Ltd and Associated Newspapers both denied libel and said their allegations were substantially true.