Tommy Robinson has been sent back to prison for encouraging ”vigilante action” against defendants in a grooming gang trial during a video livestreamed on Facebook.
The founder of the English Defence League was found in contempt of court last week over the film, which breached reporting restrictions on the case in Leeds in May 2018 and came close to collapsing the case against the guilty men.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was originally jailed for 13 months last year but was freed on appeal.
Appearing at the Old Bailey today, he was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, reduced to 19 weeks because of time already served. The maximum sentence available to the judges was two years' imprisonment.
Follow live updates from court in our liveblog below
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Tommy Robinson's sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey. It is due to start at 9.30am.
Robinson - who appears in court under his real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - faces up to two years imprisonment after being found in contempt of court last week.
Tommy Robinson faces up to two years in prison after judges rule him in contempt of court
Far-right activist breached reporting restrictions by 'aggressively confronting and filming' defendants in grooming trial, rule judgesThe judges who found Robinson in contempt issued their full reasons on Tuesday. The ruling questions the credibility of his evidence that he attempted to check the reporting restrictions at Leeds Crown Court before confronting defendants in the case live on social media.
Robinson also encouraged "vigilante action" by confronting the defendants as they arrived at court, and suggesting that they be followed and harassed.
At the time he made the video the jury were considering their verdicts in the second of three linked trials.
Attorney General -v- Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (reasons for judgment of 5 July 2019)
Queen's Bench DivisionThe judges' full reasons also revealed that Robinson's video caused a Huddersfield grooming gang member to appeal his rape conviction.
Tommy Robinson ‘encouraged vigilante action’ with Facebook video outside court, judges say
Judges say Robinson ‘encouraged vigilante action’ with video and called his changing account of events ‘not credible’After the verdict, Yaxley-Lennon appealed to Donald Trump to grant him asylum in the US, claiming he needed "evacuation from this country because dark forces are at work".
Tommy Robinson begs Donald Trump to grant him political asylum
‘I beg Donald Trump, I beg the American government, to look at my case,’ says activist following contempt of court convictionDespite saying he feared being killed in prison, Robinson later changed his mind and said that being jailed for contempt of court would be a "win".
Tommy Robinson declares being jailed would be a ‘win’ for his cause as he appeals for donations
‘My support will be stronger than ever ... either way I win,’ activist said before sentencingSo what sentence is he likely to get?
In the original contempt hearing in Leeds last year (which was reversed on appeal), Robinson was sentenced to a total of 13 months imprisonment.
This was made up of 10 months for the contempt over his Facebook Live video and three months for breaching a suspended sentence for an earlier contempt at Canterbury Crown Court in May 2017 (which also involved filming defendants in an ongoing "grooming gang" trial).
Robinson has already spent two months in prison while serving that sentence. The judges may therefore consider that he has already spent enough time behind bars. Or they could pass a sentence which means he will have to return to jail.
The maximum available sentence is two years imprisonment, though it is unlikely he will get longer than the 13 months passed originally.
Here are some other examples of a prison sentence for contempt of court.
Joanne Fraill was jailed for eight months in 2011 after chatting to an acquitted defendant on Facebook while she and her fellow jurors were considering the cases of three other defendants in a drug trial.
In July 2016, 19-year-old Damien Parker-Stokes was locked up for 15 months for taking photographs at Bristol Crown Court as his friend Ryan Sheppard was being jailed for murder. He posted the photographs on Facebook and "glorified" Sheppard.
Earlier this year actress Tina Malone was handed an eight-month suspended sentence and was ordered to pay £10,000 costs for sharing a Facebook post said to unmask James Bulger killer Jon Venables. The Shameless star admitted breaching a ban on publishing anything that purportedly reveals the new identity of Venables.
Tina Malone avoids jail after revealing new identity of James Bulger killer
The IndependentMalone shared a post on Facebook which purportedly included an image of Venables and his new nameThe alternative is to order Robinson to pay a fine.
Previous examples of financial penalties usually involve newspapers or other media.
For example, in April 2002, the publishers of the Sunday Mirror were ordered to pay more than £129,000 in fines and costs for running an article which led to the collapse of the first trial of Leeds United footballers Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer, who faced charges arising out of the assault of an Asian student.
The newspaper carried an interview with the alleged victim's father while the jury was still considering its verdict.
Woodgate was convicted of affray following a second trial, while Bowyer was cleared.
In March 2011, the publishers of the Daily Mail and The Sun were each fined £15,000 after they became the first website owners in the country to be found guilty of contempt "online", when they were found to have created a "substantial risk" of prejudicing a murder trial.
Both had accidentally published insufficiently cropped photos after the start of the September 2009 trial of Ryan Ward, which showed him holding a pistol.
Ward was later convicted of murdering car mechanic Craig Wass by hitting him with a brick.
And in In October 2012, the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror were each fined £10,000 after being found guilty of contempt of court over articles published after killer Levi Bellfield's conviction for the abduction and murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
The jury were still deliberating whether Bellfield was guilty of the attempted abduction of Rachel Cowles, then aged 11, the day before he snatched Milly from a street in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in 2002. As a result of the publicity, the Old Bailey jury was discharged from returning a verdict in relation to that charge.
There is a significant police security operation outside the Old Bailey for today's hearing, which is likely to attract another large crowd of supporters and potentially some anti-racism campaigners.
The road leading up to the main entrance to the court has already been blocked off by police.
There is no Tommy Robinson supporters bus outside court today - probably because it would get another parking ticket...
Tommy Robinson bus given parking ticket outside court
Supporters boo as double-decker bus screening pro-Robinson films is slapped with fineThere are, however, at least eight police vans in and around the court, plus several police cars and lots of security fencing.
Seems to be a larger crowd than at last week's hearing, with some waving Union Jack flags and chanting "We want Tommy out". Out of the UK? It's not entirely clear.
A man with a microphone addressed those gathered, telling them: "We're here for Tommy Robinson" and "Leave our Tommy alone".
One supporter carried a sign reading: "The Nazis blindly followed orders. Will the police do the same."
According to Press Association, the crowd includes a man wearing a Union flag suit and five women on mobility scooters.
Police officers have already been called into action to escort a man away from the scene - though it's not clear why.
Robinson supporters chanted "Shame on you" as he was marched off.
Rumours that Katie Hopkins has a press ticket for the sentencing hearing. No sign of her in court yet though.
The sentencing is currently expected to take less than two hours - suggesting that we will have a decision by 11.30am.
Judges are about to come into court - but no sign of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon aka Tommy Robinson yet.
Tommy Robinson enters court. Has he got his prison bag? Yes, he has.
Today he is in jeans and a black t-shirt, though does not seem to be wearing the one he arrived in at court.
Judges now in court, sentencing hearing begins with Richard Furlong apologising for Robinson's late arrival.
"It's not a very good start," says Dame Victoria Sharp, one of the two judges who will decide on the sentence.
Aidan Eardley, the barrister for the attorney general, lays out the possible sentence - two years imprisonment or an unlimited fine. There are no existing sentencing guidelines.
