By james art The former leader of the English Defense League admitted 10 breaches of a High Court order issued in 2021 at the start of the hearing at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday.
Lawyers for the solicitor general said the 41-year-old had been “thumbing his nose at the court” and “undermining” the rule of law, including by releasing a film called Silenced, which contained defamatory allegations, last year.
🚨UPDATE: Tommy Robinson has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) knowingly and repeatedly breached an injunction issued in 2021 that prohibited him from repeating defamation claims against young Syrian refugee Jamal Hijazi.
— HOPE not hate (@hopenothate) October 28, 2024
Lawyers for Robinson, who wore a gray suit and white shirt, said his “principles got him to justice.”
Sentencing, Mr Justice Johnson said the breaches of the order were not “random, careless or simply reckless” and that “the custodial threshold was significantly crossed”.
He said: “This was a planned, deliberate, direct, flagrant breach of court orders.”
He continued: “No one is above the law. No one can choose which orders to obey and which not to.”
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He added: “It is in the interest of the whole community that the bans are respected.”
Robinson, in a gray suit and white shirt, stood with his hands on the edge of the dock and looked up at dozens of supporters, shrugging his shoulders as the judge handed down the sentence.
Dozens of his supporters packed the public gallery and stood outside the court on Monday.