LONDON (AP) — The founder of the far-right English Defense League was sentenced Monday to a year and a half in prison for violating a court order barring him from repeating libelous allegations against a Syrian refugee.
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, admitted in Woolwich Crown Court that he was in contempt of court for violating a 2021 injunction by giving interviews in a podcast and shown on YouTube, and in a documentary he presented during a rally in London's Trafalgar Square in July that was also posted on his X account and widely viewed.
Justice Jeremy Johnson said Robinson’s breaches of the injunction were not “accidental, negligent or merely reckless” but a “planned, deliberate, direct, flagrant breach of the court’s orders.”
“The defendant has not shown any remorse for his breaches of the order. It would have been surprising had he done so,” Johnson said. “All of his actions so far suggest he regards himself as above the law.”
Robinson, 41, who has been jailed in the past for assault, mortgage fraud and contempt of court, founded the nationalist street protest group EDL in 2009 in response to radical Islam preacher Anjem Choudary. Even after the group faded from view around 2013, he remained one of the most influential far-right figures in Britain and can still draw large crowds to the streets.
This summer, police blamed EDL for starting what became a week of rioting across England and Northern Ireland after social media users falsely identified the suspect in a stabbing rampage that killed three young girls in the seaside community of Southport as an immigrant and a Muslim.
Robinson, who was out of the country at the time of the attack, was blamed for using his social media presence to stir up the unrest. Although he was banned from Twitter in 2018, he was allowed back after Elon Musk took over the social network and now has 1 million followers on the platform now known as X.
Thousands of people rallied in support of Robinson on Saturday in central London at a Unite the Kingdom rally that he planned but wasn’t able to attend because he had been jailed ahead of the hearing.
Robinson was locked up Friday on a warrant issued after he failed to appear for the court contempt hearing in July and left the country for Cyprus.
He had been ordered not to repeat false allegations he made in 2018 that a teen, Jamal Hijazi, was a violent thug who bullied and threatened other students at a school in West Yorkshire in northern England.
Videos Robinson made about Hijazi were viewed more than 1 million times and led to abuse being directed at the boy. He dropped out of school and his family had to leave their home.
Hijazi successfully sued Robinson for libel in London's High Court and was awarded 100,000 British pounds ($130,000) in damages and his court costs. An injunction was issued that prevented Robinson from repeating the allegations.
But Robinson violated the injunction 10 times since 2023, most notably by airing a documentary, titled “Silenced,” he made on the case that has been viewed more than 44 million times.
Defense lawyer Sasha Wass insisted that Robinson was a journalist who believed in free speech and stood by the documentary, which she said was produced by Alex Jones, the U.S. conspiracy theorist who founded Infowars.
“He acted the way that he did, and he accepts his culpability, because he passionately believes in free speech, a free press and the overwhelming desire that he has to expose the truth,” Wass said. “Having said all of that, he accepts the breaches as set out, but wants me to make it clear on his behalf that at all times he was following his principles.”
Attorney Aidan Eardley, on behalf of the Solicitor General, said that disobeying a court order created a risk that others might not respect court orders.
“The harm here is that millions of people could see Mr. Yaxley-Lennon thumbing his nose at the court,” Eardley said.
Robinson's supporters packed the gallery in court and crowded outside the courthouse during the hearing.
Robinson, who stood in the dock in a gray suit and white shirt, looked at the dozens of people in the gallery and shrugged his shoulders as the sentence came down. He pounded his chest as he left the courtroom.
Brian Melley, The Associated Press