The far-right activist Tommy Robinson is facing a second serious legal action for contempt of court, weeks after leaving the country on the eve of another case.
The Attorney General’s Office launched the new action against Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, over alleged breaches of a court order not to repeat defamatory lies about a Syrian refugee.
Yaxley-Lennon has not been seen in the UK since he left the country hours before a court case concerning related allegations.
The High Court has said it will order the 41-year-old’s arrest if he ignores the case.
Contempt of court is a serious offence against the workings of the justice system. The government definition of the offence includes “disobeying or ignoring a court order” – and those found guilty can go to prison for up to two years, get a fine, or both.
In July 2021, Syrian teenager Jamal Hijazi won £100,000 in damages following a major defamation battle after Yaxley-Lennon spread false allegations accusing him of being a violent thug.
A judge ordered him not to repeat the claims, but last year the founder of the English Defence League returned to them and included them in a film distributed online to his followers.
In June, Yaxley-Lennon was ordered to the High Court to answer the allegation that he had ignored the judge’s order.
Two days before that scheduled hearing in July, Yaxley-Lennon repeated the claims to thousands of his supporters in London’s Trafalgar Square – and the following day took a Channel Tunnel train to France.
The Attorney General’s Office said that the latest contempt allegations included the showing of the film at the rally, its publication on the X platform and related instances of alleged breach of the court order in three online interviews.
A hearing over the original and new allegations will be held on October 28.
The film remains pinned at the top of the Tommy Robinson X account – and in the introduction he stands outside the High Court and accuses judges of gagging him.
This afternoon, the account was updated with a message launching a petition and accusing the judiciary of “continued persecution”.
Hours after the London rally on 28 July, Yaxley-Lennon went to the Channel Tunnel terminal at Folkestone, where police officers stopped him under counter-terrorism stop-and-search powers.
When he allegedly refused to co-operate, he was arrested and held until 22:00 BST. He then left the country.
During the subsequent riots, which developed out of conspiracy theories often promoted on the Tommy Robinson social media channels, critics say he inflamed tensions.
One post on his X account declared “Now is the time”. It is not clear whether Yaxley Lennon personally published the post and it was later deleted.
When BBC News asked him to clarify why it had been posted, he publicly replied with an F-word response.
The High Court has issued an arrest warrant for Yaxley Lennon’s arrest – but it will only be triggered if he does not contact the court by 2 October, to allow him the opportunity to agree to turn up voluntarily on 28 October. So far he has not contacted the court.
