The Divisional Court (Dame Victoria Sharp P and Warby J), sitting at the Old Bailey, today sentenced Stephen Yaxley-Lennon to nine months imprisonment for contempt of court. Yaxley-Lennon also goes by the name Tommy Robinson. Contempt proceedings were brought by the Attorney General.
The contempt arose from Yaxley-Lennon’s live-streaming on Facebook of defendants outside Leeds Crown Court in May 2018.
On 4 and 5 July 2019 the Court heard the substantive application. On 5 July 2019 the Court held Mr Yaxley-Lennon to be in contempt of court. Today the Court handed down its decision on sentencing.
In previously holding Yaxley-Lennon in contempt the Court had concluded that he committed a contempt of court in three respects: first, by breaching a reporting restriction imposed under s 4(2) of the Contempt of Court Act 1981; second, by live-streaming a video from outside the public entrance to the court, the content of which was found to gave rise to a substantial risk that the course of justice in that case would be seriously impeded; and third, by aggressively confronting and filming some of the defendants in that case as they arrived at court, thereby directly interfering with the course of justice.
5RB‘s Andrew Caldecott QC and Aidan Eardley appeared for the Attorney General.
