Tommy Robinson’s latest attempt to reduce the length of his prison sentence for the civil offence of contempt of court is set to be heard at the High Court on Tuesday.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was jailed for 18 months in October after admitting multiple breaches of an injunction made in 2021, which barred him from repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him for libel.
Sentencing him at Woolwich Crown Court, Mr Justice Johnson said that the jail term would comprise a 14-month “punitive” element and a four-month “coercive” element, and that Robinson could have the latter taken off if he were to “purge” his contempt.
Robinson, who is currently due to be released on July 26, is now due to apply to purge his contempt at a hearing on Tuesday, which could secure his earlier release.
In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Johnson said the coercive part of the sentence was “intended to encourage and incentivise future compliance” with the injunction.
He said: “It is open to the defendant to purge his contempt and to seek the remittal of four months of the order, which would result in his earlier release.
“To do that, he would need to demonstrate a commitment to comply with the injunction.”
Robinson admitted 10 breaches of the injunction last year, after the Solicitor General issued two contempt claims against him.
The first alleged 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 was pinned to the top of Robinson’s profile on the 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 last year and concerned six further breaches, including playing the film at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London last summer.
Handing down the sentence, Mr Justice Johnson said Robinson could “purge” his contempt by taking steps such as removing “Silenced” and other publications which breach the injunction from his social media accounts.
Since being jailed, Robinson, who is currently held at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes, has lost two legal battles related to his imprisonment.
In March, he lost a bid to bring a legal challenge against the Ministry of Justice over his segregation from other prisoners while behind bars, after his lawyers claimed it had caused an “evident decline in his mental health”.
Barristers for the MoJ told the court that Robinson had been moved to a closed wing as an “interim position” after the prison received intelligence that “two other prisoners at HMP Woodhill were plotting to assault the claimant to gain kudos and notoriety, and that the claimant had a ‘mark on his head’ and would be killed by a lifer if located on a wing”.
Robinson then unsuccessfully challenged his sentence at the Court of Appeal in April, with three senior judges – including the Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr – finding there was “no reasonable basis” to alter the prison term.
They also said that Robinson could “still reduce the period he has to spend in custody by taking the steps identified” by Mr Justice Johnson.
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.
Tuesday’s hearing before Mr Justice Johnson is due to begin at 10am at the Royal Courts of Justice.
