It’ll be lonely this Christmas for Tommy Robinson, the thuggish far right activist who likes to pose as a political truth-teller. Only 18 months after being released from his last prison term, he is set to spend the festive period in the Big House after yet another court verdict went against him.
Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was found guilty on October 28 of using “bully-boy intimidatory tactics” to frighten and harass two Daily Mail journalists, leading them to flee their homes and employ private security.
He was charged with threatening Jacob Dirnhuber and Andrew Young after they reported that he had made a series of “incendiary posts” about the unrest after the Southport attack in 2024 from the luxury of a five-star resort in Cyprus.
Robinson, who had previously thanked Elon Musk for helping to fund his court case, told the court that he wanted to “find the journalists” to “put pressure on them”, question them about “the wrongness of what they had done” and “bring the Daily Mail to the table”. He viewed the story as an “unnecessary intrusion into his holiday”, the court was told (a holiday spent posting entirely untrue claims that Muslims had stabbed protesters in Stoke and three women in Stirling).
Alas for the self-styled freedom fighter, he was found guilty of two counts of harassment causing fear of violence by a majority verdict of 10 to two. He faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on December 16.
After the verdict, Robinson took to, inevitably, X to write: “I am not allowed to give my opinion if I do I will be automatically imprisoned. I will be sentenced on December 16th at Southwark crown court. Thank you to everyone for the love & support. NO SURRENDER.”
How long did his self-imposed monastic silence last? It was exactly 25 minutes until the Mail posted its report of the verdict under the headline “Tommy Robinson found guilty of harassing Daily Mail journalists after jurors heard he used ‘bully-boy tactics’ to intimidate reporters who exposed his UK riots shame”.
And did wee Tommy manage to bite his tongue? Not exactly. He reposted it with the response “Fucking wankers” and can look forward to explaining himself to the beak when he’s back in South London in December.
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