Tommy Robinson should have sentence reduced as jail ‘making him ill’, court told

Tommy Robinson should have his 18-month prison sentence reduced as his segregation while in custody is having a “demonstrable effect” on his mental health and “making him ill”, the Court of Appeal has heard.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was jailed for the civil offence of contempt of court in October last year, after admitting 10 breaches of a High Court order made in 2021.

The order barred the 42-year-old from repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him for libel.

Last month, Robinson failed in a bid to bring a legal claim against the Government over his segregation in prison, after claiming he had suffered an “evident decline in his mental health” because of his isolation at HMP Woodhill, near Milton Keynes.

ADHD

He is appealing against his sentence on Friday, with his barrister, Alisdair Williamson KC, telling the court that Robinson suffers from ADHD and “complex post-traumatic stress disorder”, which, when combined with his segregation in prison, was having a “demonstrable effect” on him.

The Solicitor General opposes the appeal, which Robinson attended via videolink from HMP Woodhill.

Mr Williamson said: “Mr Justice Johnson acknowledged that … there could be an effect on Mr Yaxley-Lennon’s mental health and, along with other factors, he reduced the sentence he was going to impose by one sixth, four months.

“But he did not have before him this additional factor, which in of itself means that the conditions that Mr Yaxley-Lennon faces are more onerous.”

He continued: “He is being kept safe by the authorities in segregation, but being kept safe is making him ill, and more ill than Mr Justice Johnson could have foreseen on the basis of the information before him.

“We invite this court to interfere with that order to reduce the sentence imposed.”

Robinson is currently set to be released on July 26.

Contempt

He was jailed after the Solicitor General issued two contempt claims against him last year.

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 concerning six further breaches, including playing the film at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London last summer.

Handing down the sentence in October, Mr Justice Johnson said that “nobody is above the law” and described Robinson’s breaches of the injunction as “flagrant”.

In written submissions for the hearing on Friday, Aidan Eardley KC, for the Solicitor General, said that Robinson’s sentence involved a “punitive element” and a “coercive element”.

The “coercive element” – four months – would be deducted from Robinson’s sentence if he “were to demonstrate a commitment to comply with the injunction”, stating in court that Robinson “remains defiantly in breach of the order” and was asking for the court’s “indulgence”.

He added in writing that there was “no evidence that the conditions in which the appellant is being held are more severe than was anticipated” by Mr Justice Johnson.

He said: “Legally, there is no basis for arguing that conditions unforeseeably imposed by the prison authorities could found a ground of appeal.”

Mental health

He continued: “There are no grounds for altering the sentence in this case.

“(Mr Justice Johnson) was fully apprised of the risk that a further period of imprisonment in conditions restricting the appellant’s ability to associate with other prisoners might have a detrimental impact on the appellant’s mental health and determined the sentence accordingly.”

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.

The hearing before the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Edis and Lord Justice Warby is expected to conclude later on Friday.