Tommy Robinson in bid for freedom with appeal against contempt of court jail sentence after libelling teen refugee
4 April 2025, 17:41
Tommy Robinson is set to appeal his jail sentence for contempt of court.
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The far-right activist was jailed for 18 months in October after repeatedly making false allegations against a teenage asylum seeker who had sued him successfully for libel.
Court listings show the appeal will take place on Friday, April 11 at the Court of Appeal.
Robinson, whose real name is Neil Yaxley-Lennon, was sent to prison after admitting ten breaches of a 2021 court order that barred him from making the claims against the Syrian teen.
Sentencing him last year, Mr Justice Johnson said that Robinson's breaches were not "accidental, negligent or merely reckless" and that the "custodial threshold is amply crossed".
In March, Robinson failed in a bid to bring a legal claim against the government over his segregation in prison.
He claimed he had suffered an "evident decline in his mental health" due to his isolation at HMP Woodhill, near Milton Keynes.
The Solicitor General issued two contempt claims against Robinson last year.
The first claimed he "knowingly" breached the order on four occasions, including by having "published, caused, authorised or procured" a film called Silenced, which contains the libellous allegations, in May 2023.
The film remains pinned to the top of Robinson's social media profile. 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 at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London last summer.
Lawyers for the Solicitor General told Woolwich Crown Court that Robinson had been "thumbing his nose at the court" and "undermining" the rule of law.
Barristers for Robinson said he accepted the breaches but was "following his principles".
Handing down the sentence, Mr Justice Johnson said that "nobody is above the law" and described Robinson's breaches of the injunction as "flagrant".
The injunction was issued after Robinson was successfully sued by Jamal Hijazi, a then-schoolboy who was assaulted at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in October 2018.
After a clip of the incident went viral, Robinson made false claims on Facebook, including about Mr Hijazi attacking girls in his school, leading to the libel case.
Mr Justice Nicklin ordered Robinson to pay Mr Hijazi £100,000 in damages and his legal costs, as well as making the injunction preventing Robinson from repeating the allegations.
