Tommy Robinson jailed for contempt of court

Far-right activist Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 18 months after admitting contempt of court docket by repeating false claims towards a Syrian refugee.

Robinson, whose actual identify is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, admitted 10 breaches of a Excessive Court docket order made in 2021, throughout a listening to at Woolwich Crown Court docket.

Legal professionals for the solicitor common accused the 41-year-old of “undermining” the rule of regulation.

Passing sentence, Decide Mr Justice Johnson mentioned the breaches of the injunction, which prevented Yaxley-Lenon from repeating the allegations, weren’t “unintentional, negligent or merely reckless” and the custodial threshold was “amply crossed”.

The listening to on Monday was the fruits of occasions that date again to October 2018.

That month, a video went viral exhibiting how Jamal Hijazi, a Syrian in West Yorkshire, had been attacked by one other teenager in school.

Yaxley-Lennon then posted his personal response to 1 million Fb followers alleging that his investigation had established that Mr Hijazi was a violent thug, a declare that was unfaithful.

The Yaxley-Lennon video unfold broadly and the Syrian teenager and his household obtained demise threats.

Three years later, Mr Hijazi received £100,000 in damages when the Excessive Court docket dominated Yaxley-Lennon’s claims towards him had amounted to defamation.

The court docket imposed an injunction on Yaxley-Lennon, banning him from making the false claims once more.

In February 2023, Yaxley-Lennon, who based the long-defunct English Defence League (EDL), started repeating the claims and went on to submit on-line a movie claiming he had been “silenced” by the state.

That movie could have been considered no less than 47 million instances.

Finally, this July, the anti-Islam activist confirmed the movie to hundreds of his supporters in London’s Trafalgar Sq., saying he wouldn’t be silenced. The next day he left the nation.

Aidan Eardley KC, for Solicitor Basic Sarah Sackman, informed the court docket that Yaxley-Lennon had meant to repeat the false allegations, regardless of the injunction, after which take “evasive” measures.

“This can be a excessive culpability case due to the excessive variety of breaches,” mentioned Mr Eardley.

“It’s a persevering with breach, the fabric continues to be on the market and a few of it’s below the defendant’s management.”

Sasha Wass KC, for Yaxley-Lennon, mentioned he was a journalist who had been following his ideas and was a passionate believer in free speech.

“This defendant has been neither sly nor dishonest nor looking for acquire for himself,” she mentioned.

She mentioned that he was such a controversial determine he could also be positioned in solitary confinement by jail governors, as had occurred the final time he had been jailed, and there was medical proof he had beforehand suffered trauma, panic assaults and nightmares.

Jailing Yaxley-Lennon for 18 months, Mr Justice Johnson mentioned: “In a democratic society underpinned by the rule of regulation, court docket orders have to be obeyed.

“No person is above the regulation. No person can decide or select which legal guidelines or which injunctions they obey, or which they don’t.

“Even when they imagine that an injunction is… opposite to their views they need to adjust to the injunction.

“They aren’t entitled to set themselves up because the decide in their very own court docket. In any other case the administration of justice and rule of regulation would break down.”

The decide mentioned that the contempt of court docket had been aggravated as a result of the defendant had repeated the claims after the start of proceedings towards him – and he had not taken steps to cease the false claims persevering with to be in circulation.

The sentence might in future be reduce by 4 months if the defendant confirmed the court docket that he had taken steps to take away the offending movie.

However the decide added: “The defendant has not proven any inclination to adjust to the injunction sooner or later. All of his actions recommend that he regards himself as above the regulation.”

This case was the fourth contempt case he has confronted, having beforehand obtained a suspended sentence and a six-month jail time period.

Yaxley-Lennon has been individually charged with failing to unlock his telephone for police when he was stopped and questioned at a port below counter-terrorism powers. He’ll subsequent seem in court docket in relation to that allegation in November.