Tommy Robinson cleared of refusing to leave antisemitism march over Met Police error

Tommy Robinson has been cleared of refusing to depart Westminster after he was arrested throughout an antisemitism march final November.

It comes after a senior Metropolitan Police officer who signed the dispersal order admitted it could not have been lawful after he used the flawed date on the paperwork.

Robinson, whose actual identify is Stephen Yaxley Lennon, had denied failing to adjust to a route when he was arrested by cops reverse the Royal Courts of Justice.

Giving his ruling, District Choose Daniel Sternberg mentioned: “I’m not happy there was a authorized authorisation.

“There isn’t a case so that you can reply.”

The Met Police have since that they are going to evaluate the procedural errors and the decide’s findings, to make sure any adjustments may be carried out.

The English Defence League founder had attended central London to take part within the demonstration, which got here within the wake of the Israel-Hamas struggle, regardless of being warned by organisers he wouldn’t be welcome.

Inspector Steve Parker-Phipps, chargeable for policing sure points of the protest, imposed a Part 35 order underneath the Crime and Policing Act 2014 when he thought a “right-wing group” might doubtlessly be attending, the trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Courtroom heard.

The court docket heard Inspector Parker-Phipps, whose laptop computer battery was “dying”, put the order in place at 10am on November 26, however unintentionally dated the shape for November 24.

Mr Robinson’s defence lawyer Alisdair Williamson KC instructed the court docket there had been a “litany of catastrophic errors” within the Met’s dealing with of the incident.

Questioning the inspector, Mr Williamson KC mentioned: “This doc shouldn’t be appropriate is it?

“Can we’ve got any confidence that there was a lawful order in place?” After a pause, the officer replied: “No.”

Robinson was arrested in a restaurant on the Strand a short time later, with the court docket instructed he turned “resistant” and was arrested.

He was subsequently sprayed with artificial pepper spray and handcuffed, with Robinson later importing a video of himslef with partially closed eyes to social media.

Throughout his arrest, he additionally repeatedly claimed to officers that he was a gift as a journalist on the march.

The trial was attended by quite a few supporters of Mr Robinson who crammed the general public gallery.

In response to the decision, a Met Police spokesperson mentioned: “Stephen Lennon had been charged with failing to adjust to an order to disperse from the neighborhood of the March Towards Antisemitism because it shaped up on the Strand on Saturday, 26 November.

“The court docket has discovered Mr Lennon has no case to reply, owing to quite a few procedural errors by the police. We are going to evaluate the discovering to make sure any adjustments to our method may be carried out immediately.

“The choice to impose a dispersal order on that day was taken to offer officers with the powers to maintain teams or people with opposing views aside, making certain public security and minimising the chance of dysfunction.”

They added that dispersal orders are generally utilized in public order policing, which has turn out to be more and more difficult in latest months.

“We are going to proceed to take the actions essential to hold the peace, balancing particular person rights – together with the correct to protest – with the necessity to hold the general public protected and forestall critical disruption and dysfunction,” they mentioned.