Tommy Robinson jailed for 18 months for repeating libellous claims against Syrian refugee

Far-right activist Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 18 months for contempt of court after he admitted breaching an injunction preventing him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee.

The 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was accused of “thumbing his nose at the court” in front of millions of people by breaching the 2021 High Court order on multiple occasions, including airing a documentary at a rally in Trafalgar Square in July.

In a ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Johnson sentenced him to 18 months in prison, less three days served on remand, for the “flagrant” breaches of the court order.

Robinson appeared in the dock wearing a grey suit and waistcoat at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday.

At the start of the hearing, Aidan Eardley KC, for the Solicitor General, said a “resolution” had been reached over the allegations, and read them out to the court.

When asked by Mr Justice Johnson whether he accepted he had committed the breaches, Robinson nodded and then replied “yes”.

The court heard Robinson had been barred from repeating false allegations against a refugee called Jamal Hijazi. Mr Hijazi successfully sued Robinson after the then-schoolboy was assaulted at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in October 2018.

However defamatory allegations against the schoolboy were repeated in six podcast and Youtube interviews undertaken by Robinson since February last year, including with Jordan Peterson.

A 90-minute documentary called Silenced, which “substantially repeats” the allegations was also published or aired on four occasions, including on X/Twitter – where it was viewed by 44 million people – and to crowds at a rally in Trafalgar Square in July.

At one point the film was re-shared by controversial far-right influencer Andrew Tate to 2.2 million followers.

Mr Eardley, for the Solicitor General, told the court: “The harm here is that millions of people could see Mr Yaxley-Lennon thumbing his nose at the court.”

He added: “This is not a case about Mr Yaxley-Lennon’s political views. It is not even directly a case about freedom of expression.

“It is a case about the disobedience to a court order, and the undermining of the rule of law that goes with that.”

Sasha Wass KC, for Robinson, told the court that the film’s production was funded by Infowars, a company run by American Alex Jones, who has claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.

She also said a 3.5 month period of solitary confinement due to his high profile status during a previous prison term had left Robinson with trauma, nightmares, severe anxiety, panic, irritability, sleep problems and other symptoms of depression.

Robinson surrendered to Folkestone police station on Friday where he was remanded into custody and separately charged with failing to provide his mobile phone access code to police under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

On Saturday, thousands of his supporters gathered in central London for a protest which the political activist missed after he was remanded.

Demonstrators carried placards reading “Two tier Keir fuelled the riots” and chanted “We want Tommy out” as they headed from Victoria station to Parliament Square.

Robinson was released on unconditional bail in July and subsequently left the country, with Adam Payter, representing the Solicitor General, telling the High Court there “was nothing to prevent him from doing so”.

Mr Justice Johnson issued a warrant for his arrest but ordered that it not be carried out “until early October” to allow Robinson time to indicate that he would attend the next hearing voluntarily or to apply to “set aside” the warrant. Robinson applied to set aside the warrant but his application was dismissed by Mr Justice Johnson on Friday.

The hearing continues.

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