Tommy Robinson jailed for contempt of court over Huddersfield school case
He's been handed an 18 month sentence
Last updated 28th Oct 2024
Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 18 months after admitting contempt of court by repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee at a school in Huddersfield, in breach of an injunction.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, admitted breaching the High Court order made in 2021 when he appeared at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday.
It's after he repeated allegations about a then 15 year old schoolboy attending the Almondbury Community School, who was filmed being attacked in a playground.
The Solicitor General issued two contempt claims against Robinson earlier this year, claiming he "knowingly" breached the order on multiple occasions.
The 41-year-old appeared in the dock wearing a grey suit and waistcoat with no tie, after being remanded in custody on Friday.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Johnson said the breaches of the injunction were not "accidental, negligent or merely reckless" and that the "custodial threshold is amply crossed".
He said: "It was a planned, deliberate, direct, flagrant breach of the court's orders."
He continued: "Nobody is above the law. Nobody can pick and choose which injunctions they obey and those they do not."
He added: "It is in the interests of the whole community that injunctions are obeyed."
Robinson had been barred from repeating false allegations against then-schoolboy Jamal Hijazi, who successfully sued him for libel.
The Solicitor General issued the first contempt claim against Robinson in June this year, claiming he "knowingly" breached the order on four occasions.
Lawyers previously told a judge that the breaches included Robinson having "published, caused, authorised or procured" a film titled Silenced, which contained the libellous allegations, in May last year.
The film remains pinned to the top of Robinson's profile on social media site X, while he also repeated the claims in three interviews between February and June 2023.
The second claim was issued in August, which concerned several further breaches, including playing the film to a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London earlier this year, which lawyers for the Solicitor General told an earlier hearing was a "flagrant" breach of the court order.
On Friday, Robinson attended Folkestone police station and was 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.