Robinson loses appeal to be freed early due to stress’

Tommy Robinson has lost a bid to reduce his 18-month jail term for repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee.

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Lawyers for the far-right activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, argued his detention in prison segregation is making him ill at a hearing at the High Court last week.

In a ruling yesterday, Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Edis and Lord Justice Warby dismissed the appeal. They said the sentencing judge had taken a “meticulous approach” to deciding the appropriate sanction, adding: “The evidence falls far short of the standard for a successful criminal appeal based on fresh medical evidence.”

The 42-year-old was jailed for contempt of court last October by Mr Justice Johnson after he admitted to 10 breaches of a High Court order made in 2021.

Robinson had been barred from repeating false allegations against a refugee called Jamal Hijazi. Mr Hijazi successfully sued Robinson for libel after the then-schoolboy was assaulted at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in October 2018.

Robinson was accused of “thumbing his nose at the court” in front of millions of people in the “flagrant” breaches after the defamatory allegations were repeated in six podcast and YouTube interviews undertaken by Robinson since February 2023, including with Jordan Peterson.

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