In news that I do not find unpleasant, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon just got 18 months in jail for contempt of court.
The hearing on Monday was the culmination of events that date back to October 2018.
That month, a video went viral showing how Jamal Hijazi, a Syrian in West Yorkshire, had been attacked by another teenager at school.
Yaxley-Lennon then posted his own response to one million Facebook followers alleging that his investigation had established that Mr Hijazi was a violent thug, a claim that was untrue.
The Yaxley-Lennon video spread widely and the Syrian teenager and his family received death threats.
Three years later, Mr Hijazi won £100,000 in damages when the High Court ruled the Yaxley-Lennon’s claims against him had amounted to defamation.
The court imposed an injunction on Yaxley-Lennon, banning him from making the false claims again.
In February 2023, Yaxley-Lennon began repeating the claims and went on to post online a film claiming he had been “silenced” by the state.
That film may have been viewed at least 47 million times.
Eventually, this July, Yaxley-Lennon showed the film to thousands of his supporters in Trafalgar Square, saying he would not be silenced. The following day he left the country.
I am greatly amused that the BBC also refuse to call him “Tommy Robinson”. Nice to see fuck-around-find-out working…
