LONDON — Tommy Robinson was found guilty on Wednesday, October 28, of two counts of harassment causing fear of violence against two Daily Mail journalists, after a jury at Southwark Crown Court returned majority verdicts of 10 to two following 11 hours and 25 minutes of deliberations over two days, BBC News reported. The 43-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, had denied both charges.
Source: BBC News
Robinson was granted bail and will be sentenced at the same court on December 16. The offence carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. After the verdict he posted on social media that he would be sentenced on December 16 and thanked supporters.
Source: Sky News
The case arose from August 2024. After the Southport murders and the riots that followed in England, the Daily Mail and MailOnline published articles and photographs of Robinson on a family holiday in Cyprus, under the front-page headline 'Stoking race riots from his sunbed'. Robinson told the court the reporting had endangered his family by revealing their location, and that he had acted to put pressure on the newspaper and was 'giving a warning', not threatening violence.
The prosecution, led by Ben Holt, told the jury Robinson had used 'bully-boy, intimidatory tactics' against freelance reporter Andrew Young and Daily Mail journalist Jacob Dirnhuber. The court heard he hired private investigators to photograph their home addresses, posted pictures online and sent direct messages, and told Mr Young in a phone call on August 5, 2024: 'I'm coming to get you.' The journalists said they left their homes or hired security; the court heard one journalist moved house and another was given close protection.
Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's special crime and counter-terrorism division, said: 'Stephen Lennon weaponised social media and subjected two journalists to a campaign of harassment which caused them serious fear of violence.' He added that journalists should be able to carry out their work without harassment. The Daily Mail welcomed the verdict, saying Robinson's behaviour 'was reprehensible and had grave consequences for our reporters and their families' and that it stood by its journalists' freedom to report in the public interest.
Robinson, who has said Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk is paying his legal costs, stood still as the verdicts were read out while supporters in the public gallery reacted with disappointment, reports said. The trial had opened earlier in October, when prosecutors first set out the intimidation allegations, which Robinson pleaded not guilty to at the time.