'I haven’t said a word…I’ve done nothing,' far-right figurehead pleads as he is detained by officers
Tommy Robinson has been arrested for allegedly breaching the peace outside a court during an ongoing grooming trial.
The far-right activist showed men entering Leeds Crown Court in a livestream on Facebook, where he claimed to be “reporting” on the case.
After more than an hour of broadcasting, footage showed police officers approaching to arrest him for alleged breach of the peace and incitement.
“Can you get me a solicitor?” he asked his supporters while being searched and bundled into a police van. “This is ridiculous, I haven’t said a word…I’ve done nothing.”
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Lennon, had claimed that verdicts were due on Friday but court officials confirmed that the trial of nine defendants is ongoing.
“This isn’t contempt of court?” he asked during the broadcast. “You are allowed to do this, aren’t you?”
Contempt of court is a criminal offence that can see people jailed for speeches or publications that create a "substantial risk that the course of justice in the proceedings in question will be seriously impeded or prejudiced".
Robinson is already under a suspended sentence for committing contempt of court over a gang rape case heard in Canterbury last year.
Judge Heather Norton handed him a three months imprisonment in May last year but suspended it for 18 months on the condition he did not commit further offences.
“This is not about free speech, not about the freedom of the press, nor about legitimate journalism, and not about political correctness,” the judge told Robinson at the time
“It is about justice and ensuring that a trial can be carried out justly and fairly, it’s about being innocent until proven guilty.
“It is about preserving the integrity of the jury to continue without people being intimidated or being affected by irresponsible and inaccurate ‘reporting’, if that’s what it was.”
Robinson formerly broadcast his activities on Twitter as well as Facebook, but was permanently banned from the platform earlier this year.
He co-founded the English Defence League (EDL) in 2009 and has been arrested numerous times during demonstrations and at fights between football fans, as well as being jailed for mortgage fraud in 2014.
After claiming to have made friends with Muslim prisoners during his time inside, he attempted to found a British branch of the German anti-Islam group Pegida in 2015.
He later became a correspondent for Canadian right-wing website Rebel Media and his posts and emails during the period radicalised the Finsbury Park attacker Darren Osborne.
Robinson has since started his own site and has been working closely with members of the ethno-nationalist Generation Identity movement, whose leaders have been prevented from entering the UK.