CONTEMPTIBLE
‘TOMMY’S’ PATHETIC T-SHIRT PROTEST
BY SIAN HARRISON reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk TOMMY Robinson has been jailed for a second time over a video he broadcast on Facebook featuring defendants in a criminal trial – in breach of a reporting ban.
The English Defence League founder, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, showed little reaction as he was handed a ninemonth sentence at the Old Bailey yesterday.
He is set to serve just nine and a half weeks.
The sentencing hearing had been briefly delayed after Robinson, who arrived outside court accompanied by far-right commentator Katie Hopkins, was mobbed by supporters.
He was wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Convicted of Journalism”.
Robinson, 36, of Luton, Bedfordshire, was found to have committed contempt of court last Friday, following a two-day High Court hearing held at the Old Bailey.
Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Mr Justice Warby, said the contempt committed by Robinson was not “deliberate defiance” and he had not intended to “interfere with the administration of justice”.
However, the judge said his conduct amounted to a “serious contempt” and involved “reckless disobedience” of an important court order.
Robinson was found in contempt in three respects when he filmed men accused of the sexual exploitation of young girls and live streamed the footage on Facebook outside Leeds Crown Court in May 2018.
Dame Victoria and Mr Justice Warby concluded he committed contempt by breaching the reporting restriction imposed on the trial, by live streaming the video from outside the public entrance to the court and by “aggressively confronting and filming” some of the defendants.
Giving reasons for their findings on Tuesday, Dame Victoria said Robinson encouraged “vigilante action” in the video, which lasted an hour-and-a-half and was viewed online 250,000 times on the morning of the broadcast.
His sentence was composed of