Tommy Robinson admits contempt of court after showing film ‘Silenced’ about Syrian refugee at a protest
TOMMY Robinson has admitted contempt of court after showing a film containing slurs about a Syrian refugee during a protest.
The 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, appeared at Woolwich Crown Court today after breaching a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating the false claims.
The far-right activist was accused of being in contempt of court after the airing of the film Silenced at a protest in Trafalgar Square in July.
Contempt of court can result in up to two years in jail, a fine, or both.
The 41-year-old appeared in the dock wearing a grey suit and waistcoat with no tie.
At the start of the hearing, Aidan Eardley KC, for the Solicitor General, said a “resolution” had been reached over the allegations.
Asked by Mr Justice Johnson whether he accepted he had committed the breaches, Robinson nodded and replied “Yes”.
Robinson had been barred from repeating false allegations against then-schoolboy Jamal Hijazi, who successfully sued him for libel.
The Solicitor General issued the first contempt claim against Robinson in June this year, claiming he “knowingly” breached the order on four occasions.
Lawyers previously told a judge that the breaches included Robinson having “published, caused, authorised or procured” a film titled Silenced, which contained the libellous allegations, in May last year.
Sasha Wass KC, for Robinson, told the court that the film’s production was funded by Infowars, a company run by American Alex Jones, who has claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.
The film remains pinned to the top of Robinson’s profile on social media site X, while he also repeated the claims in three interviews between February and June 2023.
The second claim was issued in August, concerning six further breaches, including playing the film to a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London earlier this year, which lawyers for the Solicitor General told an earlier hearing was a “flagrant” breach of the court order.
Mr Eardley told the court the second claim was issued after “continuing concerning behaviour by Mr Yaxley-Lennon”.
He continued that the film was viewed “very extensively”, including being seen by 2.2 million people after being reposted by Andrew Tate.
And, he said in written submissions that by the time the second claim was issued, it “had received 44m views on X alone”.
Mr Eardley said: “Because of the nature of the film is to effectively re-run the case that failed at trial, it substantially repeats all the allegations made at trial.”
He claimed that all of the paragraphs of the injunction were breached “at one point or another” by the film.
Mr Eardley said in written submissions that the court “can be sure that the defendant was responsible for the publication of the film” and “also intended that it should be shared as widely as possible via other channels”.
In court, he said it was Robinson’s “declared intention to disobey the order”, adding: “It is a continual breach.
“This material is still out there.
“He could take it off Twitter if he wanted to.”
Mr Eardley continued: “The harm here is that millions of people could see Mr Yaxley-Lennon thumbing his nose at the court.”
He added: “This is not a case about Mr Yaxley-Lennon’s political views.
“It is not even directly a case about freedom of expression.
“It is a case about the disobedience to a court order, and the undermining of the rule of law that goes with that.”
Robinson could be seen to laugh, shake his head and silently mouth words to himself throughout the hearing, and at times stood up in the dock to listen to proceedings.
This comes after Robinson appeared at Folkestone police station on Friday where he was remanded into custody and separately charged with failing to provide his mobile phone access code to police under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
He hugged supporters waiting outside for him, who then cheered as he entered the station.
The 41-year-old missed a protest held on Saturday, where thousands of his supporters gathered in central London.
Demonstrators carried banners reading “Two tier Keir fuelled the riots” and chanted “We want Tommy out” as they marched from Victoria station to Parliament Square.
The protest was met with rival protesters from Stand Up to Racism, which called on its supporters to “take to the streets” in a “massive anti-fascist demonstration”.
It is understood five arrests were made at the demonstration, the Metropolitan Police said.
Robinson was released on unconditional bail in July and subsequently left the country.
Adam Payter, representing the Solicitor General, told the High Court there “was nothing to prevent him from doing so”.
Mr Justice Johnson issued a warrant for Robinson’s arrest but ordered that it not be carried out “until early October”.
This was to allow the 41-year-old time to indicate that he would attend the next hearing voluntarily or to apply to “set aside” the warrant.
Robinson posted a video of himself arriving at Luton Airport on October 20 and said he was surprised he had not been arrested.
He applied to set aside the warrant but his application was dismissed by Mr Justice Johnson on Friday.