Tommy Robinson appeal - LIVE: EDL founder challenges 13-month prison sentence for contempt of court
The Court of Appeal is to hear a challenge by former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson against his jail term for contempt of court.
The far-right leader, who is appearing under his real name of Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, was locked up in May after he broke blanket reporting restrictions on an ongoing set of trials by discussing them in a Facebook Live video.
He was previously spared jail after committing contempt in another case in Canterbury in 2017, on the condition he committed no further crimes.
Judge Geoffrey Marson QC activated that three-month term and added 10 months for the new offence, telling Robinson that he risked causing a trial to collapse.
Mr Mably is acting in a neutral capacity and is being asked about how important it is to put the content of the breach to the defendant.
He says it is "important" because otherwise the person cannot "meet the allegation against him", adding: "It is a fundamental part of the procedure."
He says that the judge in Leeds had identified the content "in a general sense" and says the court must define if the identification of the offence was sufficient.
"It is a fundamental part of any procedure that a person under investigation knows what he is accused of."
Mr Mably acknowledges that an adjournment "may have had an impact on sentence".
The Lord Chief Justice says the judge's sentencing remarks in Leeds included factors not in Section 4 (2), but the barrister says they may have been considered to "aggravate" the seriousness of the breach.
The barrister, Louis Mably QC, says the case is a question of "substance not form".
He says that in Leeds "the court was plainly faced with an immediate problem and it was right in the first instance to explore the matter, first to stop whatever he was doing and secondly to ensure the material was deleted."
Mr Mably says the proceedings could have been adjourned but even if it had and the precise breaches of the order had been clarified "it is unlikely that any adjournement could have led to a finding there was no contempt"
The barrister says there is "no dispute" that filming inside a court is illegal - whether under Contempt of Court Act or the Criminal Justice Act - which is what Robinson did in Canterbury.
He says in Leeds, the breach of the Section 4 (2) order banning reporting is contempt.
The barrister says Robinson's team's argument that any violation of criminal procedure rules would invalidate his contempt convictions is "incorrect", when "any irregularity had no bearing on the outcome of the case"
He says the "juristiction to proceed is not founded by the rules and...there is nothing in them to suggest an order or finding of contempt is invalidated if a particular aspect of the rules is not complied with."
The hearing has resumed and Mr Dein is going through the transcript of Robinson's live stream outside Leeds Crown Court on 25 May.
He is noting what details Robinson went into, but the case in question is still subject to a blanket reporting restriction and so we cannot report them.
Mr Dein says that Robinson was not given specific conditions to his suspended sentence from Canterbury, but the Lord Chief Justice says he did not need to be.
Mr Dein says it is "wrong and unfair" that the three-month sentence was activated at Leeds.
Mr Dein says: "A sentence of 10 months imprisonment was manifestly excesive in the circumstances of this case and the appellant has now been in custody since 25 May, being held as a criminal prisoner rather than a civil one, and it is our submission that he has served sufficient time in custody for the offence committeed in Leeds."
Mr Dein says the Leeds judge, Geoffrey Marson QC, "started too high" with his sentencing.
"It is evident that a sentence of 10 months was too high in the circumstances, where similar or shorter sentences have been imposed on defendants who have expressly disobeyed judges' orders."
Mr Dein says that in a previous sentence Robinson suffered "significant impact, in particular symptoms of anxiety, inability to sleep eat, nausea, tearful, inability to communicate and so on" in March 2013-July 2013.
He says that evidence was not put before the judge in Leeds.
Mr Dein says Robinson was placed into "what is effectively solitary confinement" in HMP Onley, given 30 mins of yard access a day and no rehabilitation, education, work, training and limited access to his children.
He says Robinson is "in peril", adding: "The prison is acting in good faith believing the appellant requires this level of protection."
Protesters were expected to gather outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London ahead of the hearing on Wednesday, which was before the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the Rt Hon Sir Ian Burnett, Mr Justice Turner and Mrs Justice McGowan DBE.
They may choose to reserve judgement to a later date after hearing evidence.
US Senator Sam Brownback reportedly told British ambassador Sir Kim Darroch the UK should be more “sympathetic” to the former leader of the EDL and warned Sir Kim that the Trump administration might publicly criticise its handling of the case.
Robinson has been forming links with the American alt-right, who characterise him as a “citizen journalist” and see imprisonment as a violation of freedom of speech.
Steve Bannon, the former Breitbart chairman who served as the White House chief strategist, has given his personal support to Robinson and former Breitbart London editor Raheem Kassam has coordinated two “Free Tommy” rallies.
A neoconservative US think-tank said it was funding both Robinson's legal costs and two protests in London on 9 June and 14 July.
MPs and campaigners warned that far-right extremists were rallying around his imprisonment to develop a new “racist street movement” with international support.
It comes as statistics show more extreme right-wing terrorists are being arrested and jailed than ever before, with the head of MI5 warning that their brand of extremism was “rearing its ugly head” once more.
