Tommy Robinson found guilty of contempt of court, faces jail for social media broadcast

British EDL founder Tommy Robinson faces jail time after High Court judges determined him in contempt of court, linked to his filming of criminal defendants outside of a courthouse and broadcasting the footage online.

Lawyers representing Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, who requested to have Robinson jailed over the broadcasts, argued the activist’s “whole objective” was to “get the defendants’ faces out there.”

Though Robinson denies any wrongdoing and maintains he only shared information already in the public domain, High Court justices Victoria Sharp and Mark Warby found the activist guilty on multiple counts of contempt.

Robinson is accused of violating a reporting restriction which delayed publication of details on the cases of 29 defendants – charged for predatory sexual “grooming” of minors – in an effort to ensure they received fair trials, and was previously sentenced to over a year in jail following another contempt ruling, but only served two months before it was overturned.

The case was returned to the attorney general, who decided in March to renew the contempt proceedings.

A crowd of around 300 of Robinson’s supporters gathered outside the courthouse on Thursday in anticipation of the ruling. The group reacted with anger and disbelief to the verdict on Friday, with some directing chants of “shame on you” at court officials.

Robinson addressed his supporters in an impromptu rally after the retrial, slamming the court’s decision and vowing to continue his fight in the legal system.

“They will impose any measures, [go to] any lengths, in order to silence people exposing their wrongdoings,” Robinson told the crowd.

The 34-year-old anti-immigration advocate has stirred controversy in the UK with his provocative activism, including his courthouse broadcasts and videos claiming to depict “no-go zones” in some British communities, which Robinson says have been taken over by Muslim immigrants. He was a co-founder of the English Defence League, a right-wing social movement hostile to immigrants, but left the organization in 2013, citing the “dangers of far-right extremism.”

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