Far-right activist gets prison time after breaking court rules in refugee case
British activist breaks court order about Syrian refugee case comments and faces jail-time. Judge finds his actions were pre-planned and gives him chance to reduce sentence by removing online content
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (known as Tommy Robinson) got an 18-month jail sentence on 10/28/24 for ignoring courts rules about a refugee case. The far-right figure kept talking about a Syrian teen even though he lost a case and had to pay £100‚000 in damages about 3 years ago
The court found that Yaxley-Lennon made planned moves against the rules from early-23 to mid-summer: he did online talks and made a film called ʼSilencedʼ (which got millions of views and was shown at a big london square)
His lawyer says he did it for free-speech reasons and worked with US web-show host Alex Jones company; but the judge wasnt buying it. “He thinks hes above rules“ – said Judge Johnson who gave him a way to cut 4 months off his time if he takes down his film
The case shows how Yaxley-Lennon keeps getting in trouble with courts:
- Got jail time for same thing in 2019
- Has other law problems too
- Broke rules three times before
- Made issues worse during UK street problems last summer
The judge says these werent just small mistakes: “Each time he broke the rules it was thought-out and on purpose‚“ he noted‚ while Yaxley-Lennon just shook his head at people watching in court
