Robinson: I’m the victim of witch-hunt
Supporters cheer English Defence League founder outside Old Bailey as contempt retrial is delayed
TOMMY ROBINSON, the founder of the English Defence League, told supporters he was the victim of a “political witch-hunt” as hundreds gathered outside the Old Bailey yesterday in the run-up to his retrial.
Amid raucous scenes in which demonstrators drank from cans of strong lager and waved banners praising Donald Trump, the far-right activist took to a stage and insisted he was charged with contempt of court “because of who I am, rather than what I did”.
However, the case against Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxleylennon, was yesterday sent back to the Attorney General over a technicality.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of London, said that the “nature and extent of controversies” in a new statement the defendant had filed a day earlier required cross-examination, which could not be achieved legally at that hearing.
Yaxley-lennon denies being in contempt in May when he broadcast on social media from outside Leeds Crown Court about an Asian grooming sex trial that had strict reporting restrictions placed on it.
He was arrested at that court and sentenced to 13 months imprisonment.
After two months in jail, three appeal judges overturned his conviction saying he should not have been tried on the same day as his arrest. They ordered a retrial.
Judge Hilliard said yesterday that the defendant’s latest statement meant there were now disputed elements.
“I think it necessary to look at quite a lot of the detail of what Yaxley-lennon said in the broadcast to come to the overall picture as to what happened,” he said. “I’m satisfied in the light of the issues as they now appear as they emerged from the statement of yesterday that cross-examination of Yaxleylennon is necessary for a proper and thorough examination and resolution of the case.”
The Attorney General’s Office said: “A law officer will consider all material afresh, and make a decision whether or not to refer Stephen Yaxley-lennon to the High Court for contempt.”
As the streets around the court reverberated to chants of “We want Tommy out”, Yaxley-lennon emerged from court following the short hearing to loud applause. After being hailed a “saviour”, he gave a 25-minute speech claiming he said he had only broadcast details about the Leeds case that were already in the public domain.
The chants shifted from “Oh, Tommy Robinson” to “Fake News” as the assembled mainly white, middle-aged men pointed in unison at television crews and reporters.
At one point a woman who had been drinking cans of Stella Artois was ushered to the side, where she threw up. More than 500 protesters were crammed inside barricades on the cordoned-off street.
The contempt charge relates to a trial in which 20 members of a gang of mainly Pakistani men were sentenced to more than 220 years in jail after the court heard they passed victims around for sexual gratification like “commodities”.
That case – one of three linked trials – was reported after a judge agreed to a request from the media to lift reporting restrictions after the conclusion of all the connected trials.
Legal papers about the alleged contempt reveal how Yaxley-lennon’s video, filmed from outside the court during the trial, was posted on Facebook and seen 3.4million times in four days. It is claimed his language in the clip suggested he believed the defendants were guilty, and he even approached them for comments at an entrance also used by jurors.
Yaxley-lennon founded the English Defence League in 2009. He has convictions for assault, public order offences, drugs, mortgage fraud and was jailed in 2013 for using someone else’s passport to travel to the US.
‘I’m satisfied … that crossexamination of Yaxleylennon is necessary for a proper and thorough examination and resolution of the case’