Tommy Robinson has been sentenced to six months in prison for three counts of contempt of court and will likely be sent back immediately following the conclusion of the hearing.
Judge says she wants to send Tommy to prison immediately — as in, this afternoon.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) July 11, 2019
The sentence is highly unusual as contempt of court cases almost always lead to a non-custodial sentence — especially for journalists. Typically, a media outlet or journalist would face a slap on the wrist or light fine. Yet, one of the judges in the case, Dame Victoria Sharp, said that “nothing less than a custodial penalty would reflect the gravity” of the situation.
The judge admitted that they specifically wanted to make an example of Robinson.
Dame Victoria says she wants to make an example out of Tommy. (That's what the Attorney General said — he asked the court to punish citizen journalists.)
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) July 11, 2019
As she handed down the sentence, Sharp acknowledged that Robinson was not intentionally interfering and that he did not disrupt the trial — but said that he acted recklessly.
The judge acknowledges that Tommy was not trying intentionally to interfere; and she notes the trial was not in fact disrupted. She said he committed "reckless disobedience to a court order" and created a "substantial risk" to the trial
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) July 11, 2019
Robinson already served ten weeks in prison for the livestream before winning an appeal and being released, so they will be reducing the penalty by 138 days. However, the judge activated a prior suspended sentence and ordered them to run consecutively — bringing the total sentence to nine months. With the time he has already served, the outspoken commentator will end up serving 9.5 weeks in prison for the crime of doing journalism.
To rub salt in the wounds, the court has also ordered him to pay the costs of the trial.
Prior to his sentencing hearing, Robinson recorded a video urging supporters to use every means at their disposal to highlight the problem of grooming gangs preying on young girls.
“So, I’m in prison — for the crime of journalism,” Robinson began in the pre-recorded video, “for exposing Muslim pedophile rapists.”
Robinson continued on to say that “British journalists don’t seem bothered about this at all. They are puppets of corporate globalist media. In fact, they’re not even journalists. They’re activists.”
Robinson wore a shirt to the courthouse that read “Convicted of journalism” on the front and “Britain = North Korea” on the back.
“Britain = North Korea”
Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) arrived in court this morning wearing a shirt comparing Britain to North Korea. He is currently being sentenced for contempt of court charges. pic.twitter.com/GyzjcF3hdd
— RT UK (@RTUKnews) July 11, 2019
The independent journalist was facing a maximum of up to two years in prison after being convicted of breaching a reporting restriction by livestreaming commentary on the sidewalk outside the court during a 2018 Muslim grooming gang trial. The prosecution claimed that he was “aggressively confronting and intimidating the defendants” — in other words, he is guilty of making pedophiles afraid.
I just spoke with Tommy. He knows he will be sent back to prison, and of course he feels the injustice of it. But he is defiant; and is already talking about what he will do next.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) July 11, 2019
The trial he was covering was a massive rape gang in Leeds. Twenty seven men and two women were on child for raping girls as young as 11, nightly, for years. Robinson had went into the court to see if there were reporting bans before he began his livestream, but the staff did not know of any. Nothing was posted on the court TV screen or on the doors, which is normally required for these government reporting restrictions. The names of the accused had already been published by the BBC that very morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zdf5bTCbhc
Despite the unclear nature of the restriction and the fact that he was on the public sidewalk, Robinson was arrested that day and immediately sent to prison to serve a 13 month sentence.
We have evidence from court employees that Tommy & staff inquired about the publication ban. We have evidence from court staff that they failed to publicize the ban (including on the TV screen).
So what turns on whether or not Tommy's staff took a photo of the screen?
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) July 5, 2019
Robinson ultimately served 10 weeks in prison for the incident before the charges were overturned in the Court of Appeal. Their ruling that found he was improperly tried, convicted, sentenced and imprisoned. Though he was released, the court left the option open to try him again for the same incident — which they did, and found him guilty.
During the second trial, the prosecution actually complained that Robinson had the temerity of filming the pedophiles “at a time of high anxiety for them.”
Caldecott the prosecutor is deeply concerned about the rapists.
He just complained that Tommy had the temerity of filming them "at a time of high anxiety for them".
I haven't heard a word from Caldecott about the high anxiety of the dozens of little girls raped by these men.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) July 5, 2019
There is no evidence whatsoever that Robinson’s livestream impacted the outcomes of any grooming gang trial, though the prosecution claimed that his reporting outside the courthouse was a “serious interference with the administration of justice.”
During each of Robinson’s hearings that I attended, reporters chased Robinson for blocks attempting to be present to take photos if he happened to get hit with a milkshake or assaulted again. They hounded him. What these mobs of “respectable media” did during each court appearance was far more aggressive than anything Robinson said during his livestream — and it is impossible not to notice the double standard.
During Thursday morning’s sentencing hearing, a large crowd had amassed at the Old Bailey to protest.
LIVE: Outside the Old Bailey as Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) is sentenced for contempt of court charges. https://t.co/zdntDBGvvM
— RT UK (@RTUKnews) July 11, 2019
During his nearly three months in prison the first time around, Robinson lost over 40 pounds and was surviving on fruit and five cans of tuna per week, due to concerns about the inmates preparing his meals. He repeatedly complained to the prison and requested that they raise the £12 per week commissary spending limit so that he could purchase more packaged food, but they would not allow it.
Robinson, an outspoken critic of Islam, told The Gateway Pundit that after he was moved to a majority Muslim prison he had to stay inside his cell with the windows shut because people would spit or throw feces through his window. He believes that he was deliberately moved to a prison with a high Muslim population to put a target on his back.
“If he were to have stayed in prison much longer, I fear his very life would have been in danger,” Rebel Media’s Ezra Levant wrote after he was released from the initial imprisonment.
Additionally, while imprisoned, Robinson was only allowed to see his wife and children twice, for one hour each time. At one point, he was told by an inmate that his family was going to be attacked with acid.
The court was not concerned with his safety upon returning to prison, as Dame Victoria Sharp said those issues were to be addressed with prison authorities.
Translation: Dame Victoria Sharp isn't concerned that her sentence will be transformed into violence against Tommy, or solitary confinement. Not her concern. Not her worry. I mean, her job's done, right? https://t.co/iIdU0AN1S7
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) July 11, 2019
Prior to his sentencing, Robinson went to the media with a plea for President Donald Trump to grant him asylum, as he believes that he will be killed in prison.
“In desperation, I’m making an appeal to President Trump urging him to get his lawyers and his team to look into my case. I’ve already been unlawfully imprisoned, now I’ve been convicted — not by a jury of peers — but the government that got me through a back door. I’ve been convicted for journalism,” Robinson told the Gateway Pundit. “I seek political asylum because I believe that in two days time I’ll be sent to prison to be murdered by a government who oppose and have taken our freedoms away.” He added that “freedom of speech is gone and our freedom of press is gone — and whilst it goes, all the mainstream media celebrate it.”
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1149129365399191553?s=20
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