Far-right activist, Tommy Robinson, has been sentenced to jail for 18 months after admitting contempt of court by repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, had admitted to 10 breaches of a High Court order made in 2021 during a hearing at Woolwich Crown Court.
The legal practitioner for the solicitor general had accused the 41-year-old of “undermining” the rule of law but Robinson’s barristers have said it was his “principles that have brought him before the court”.
Monday’s hearing was the climax of the events that date as far back to October 2018.
That same month, a video went viral detailing how Jamal Hijazi, a Syrian in West Yorkshire, had been attacked by another teenager at school.
Seeing this, Yaxley-Lennon posted his own response to one million Facebook followers alleging that his investigation had established that Mr Hijazi was a violent thug –a claim that was untrue.
That video spread like wildfire causing the Syrian teenager and his family to received death threats.
Three years later, however, Mr Hijazi won £100,000 in damages when the High Court ruled that Yaxley-Lennon’s claims against him had amounted to libel.
Afterwards, the court imposed an injunction on Yaxley-Lennon, prohibiting him from making the false claims again.
Consequently, in February 2023, Yaxley-Lennon, who established the long-defunct English Defence League (EDL), began repeating the claims, even going as far as posting a film claiming he had been “silenced” by the state online.
It is surmised that this film may have been viewed about 47 million times.
Again in July 2024, Yaxley-Lennon showed the film to thousands of his supporters in Trafalgar Square, declaring that he would not be silenced and promptly left the country the following day.
Meanwhile, Aidan Eardley KC, for Solicitor General Sarah Sackman, had informed the court that Yaxley-Lennon had planned to repeat the false allegations, notwithstanding the injunction, and then take “evasive” measures afterwards.
“This is a high culpability case because of the high number of breaches,” said Mr Eardley, adding, “It is a continuing breach, the material is still out there and some of it is under the defendant’s control.”
Sasha Wass KC, for Yaxley-Lennon, had said he was a journalist who had been following his principles and was a passionate believer in free speech.
“This defendant has been neither sly nor dishonest nor seeking gain for himself,” she had opined.
Wass also added that he was such a controversial figure that may be placed in solitary confinement by prison governors, as had previously occurred the last time he had been jailed, and there was medical evidence he had previously suffered trauma, panic attacks and nightmares.
But the judge had said that the contempt of court had been exacerbated because the defendant had repeated the claims after the beginning of proceedings against him – and he had not taken steps to quash the false claims continuing to be in circulation.
There’s a probability that the sentence could be cut in future by four months if the defendant showed the court that he had taken steps to remove the offending film.
However, the judge had stipulated:
“The defendant has not shown any inclination to comply with the injunction in the future. All of his actions suggest that he regards himself as above the law.”
This is the fourth contempt case Yaxley-Lennon has faced, having previously received a suspended sentence and a six-month jail term.
Separately, he has been charged with not unlocking his phone for police when he was stopped and questioned at a port under counter-terrorism powers. He will next appear in court in relation to that allegation in November 2024.
