Tommy Robinson has lost his appeal against his 18-month contempt of court sentence at the UK Court of Appeal.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was jailed in October last year after admitting multiple breaches of a restraining order made in 2021 preventing him from repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him for libel.
He is expected to be released on July 26 after serving half of his sentence.
The 42-year-old appealed against his sentence on Friday, with the Court of Appeal saying his mental state, combined with the loneliness of prison, was “making him ill” and was having an “obvious impact” on him.
The Solicitor General opposed the appeal, and Robinson's lawyers said there was “no basis for changing the sentence.”
In their judgment on Wednesday, Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Edis and Lord Justice Warby dismissed the appeal.
They noted: “The judge's application of the law and his reasoning about the appropriate penalty in this case demonstrate a careful approach.”
The ruling was Robinson's second court defeat in less than a month, after the High Court in March rejected his attempt to sue the UK government over his segregation at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.
He was jailed at Woolwich Crown Court after admitting 10 breaches of the injunction after the Solicitor General brought two contempt of court actions against him earlier last year.
In the first case, he alleged he “knowingly” violated the order four times, including by “publishing, causing, authorizing or procuring” a film called “Silenced” containing defamatory allegations in May 2023.
The film was pinned to the top of Robinson's X social media profile, and he repeated the claims in three interviews between February and June 2023.
A second application was made in August over six more breaches, including the showing of the film at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London last summer.
In sentencing in October, Judge Johnson noted that “no one is above the law,” calling Robinson's violations of the order “egregious.”
The judge added that Robinson could have his sentence reduced by four months if he takes certain actions to “clean up” his contempt, such as removing the film from his social media pages.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
