A student who threw a "paint bomb" at Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg was unrepentant after being fined £200 for his actions.

Stuart Rodger, 23, said the Deputy Prime Minister "deserved it" when he was targeted by an egg filled with blue paint outside a meeting at the Woodside Halls in Glasgow last August.

Rodger, a former Liberal Democrat activist, admitted breach of the peace at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday. Sheriff Brian Adair told him: "This country prides itself in free speech and protesting within limits, but your actions were criminal."

After the hearing Rodger told journalists: "I stand by what happened that evening. He deserved it."

The court was told the student ran up to Mr Clegg's car as he arrived for the party meeting at Woodside Halls on August 25.

When police tried to stop him he produced an egg and threw it in the direction of the Deputy Prime Minister, causing it to strike a pillar and pepper his face and suit with blue paint.

Rodger, a third-year politics student at Glasgow University, told police after his arrest: "It was purely accidental. It was designed to hit Nick Clegg."

His lawyer, Clare Ryan, told the court he had been "particularly upset" by the Liberal Democrats' decision to go into coalition with the Conservatives after the 2010 General Election.

She said: "He was protesting on that day, but he accepts that he crossed the line," adding that Rodger was "not likely to behave like this again".

Mr Clegg brushed off the incident at the time, saying: "These things happen. It's not a big deal."