Highlights
- Robinson convicted of harassing two journalists, faces up to 10 years in prison at sentencing on December 16
- He hired private investigators to trace reporters who covered him during the 2024 riots
- Musk funded his defence; Robinson calls the verdict "insane" and is raising money to appeal
TOMMY ROBINSON, the far-right activist whose online posts during the summer 2024 unrest made him one of its most prominent voices, has been found guilty of harassing two journalists who reported on him at the time.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court in London convicted Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, on Wednesday (28) of two counts of harassment causing fear of violence. The jury's 10-to-2 majority came after 11 hours and 25 minutes of deliberation.
The 43-year-old faces up to 10 years in prison. Judge John Cavanagh said he would consider all options, including a custodial sentence, and ordered a pre-sentence report. Robinson, who remains on bail, will be sentenced on December 16.
The case goes beyond a dispute between an activist and a newspaper. The jury decided that a campaign of online attacks, combined with efforts to find where reporters lived, crossed the line from criticism into criminal intimidation.
That matters to communities who were themselves targeted during the 2024 disorder, when mosques, Asian-owned businesses and hotels housing asylum seekers were attacked in several towns.
What the jury heard
The charges related to freelance reporter Andrew Young and Daily Mail editor Jacob Dirnhuber. In August 2024, as disorder spread across England after the murders of three girls in Southport, Robinson posted about events from a holiday in Cyprus.
The Mail sent Young and a photographer to the island, and later published a story accusing Robinson of stoking riots from his sunbed. Prosecutors said Robinson then retaliated, attacking the two men on his X account and hiring private investigators to find their home addresses. He also sought the address of the Daily Mail's editor-in-chief, Ted Verity.
Verity gave police a voicemail Robinson had left him, in which he said: "I've already located every f****** one of you."
The court heard that Young was given a close protection officer after Robinson posted pictures of his wife and children on his X account, and that Dirnhuber had to move house. Prosecutors described Robinson's conduct as "bully boy" behaviour that left the journalists afraid of a "vigilante" attack.
Giving evidence, Robinson said he wanted to put "pressure" on the journalists but denied that hiring investigators was meant to intimidate them.
Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's special crime and counter terrorism division, said Robinson had "weaponised social media". He added: "Nobody should be made to fear violence because of the work they do."
'We fight on'
Robinson denied the charges. At the start of the trial he thanked Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, for paying his legal costs.
Shortly after the verdict, he posted on X that the decision was "just insane" and added: "We fight on." His media company, Urban Scoop, which had emailed subscribers throughout the trial asking for donations towards his private security, quickly sent supporters a new appeal for money to fund a challenge to the conviction.
A Daily Mail spokesperson welcomed the verdict and said the paper stood by its journalists and their freedom to report in the public interest.
Robinson is one of Britain's best-known far-right figures and has a large online following. He already has convictions for offences including assault, fraud and contempt of court, and has served several prison terms.
He first came to prominence in 2009 as a co-founder of the English Defence League, the now-defunct anti-Islam street movement. For almost two decades, he has led a campaign against Muslims and immigration, and last year he drew a crowd that some estimates put at up to 150,000 people onto the streets of London.
His influence was thought to be fading several years ago amid legal and financial problems. It grew again after Musk bought X and restored Robinson's account in November 2023.
Robinson will return to Southwark Crown Court on December 16 for sentencing, once the pre-sentence report is ready, reports said.
