Tommy Robinson has been convicted of two counts of harassment causing fear of violence against Daily Mail journalists Andrew Young and Jacob Dirnhuber, following a trial at Southwark Crown Court. He faces up to ten years in prison.
The case centred on reporting by Young and Dirnhuber that accused Robinson of stoking the riots that followed the mass stabbing at a children’s dance party in Southport in 2024, a claim Robinson has consistently denied. The Daily Mail also published images of Robinson at a property in Cyprus, where he was staying with his family at the time. Robinson said the reports exposed his location despite the journalists knowing that “people want to kill me.”
In response, Robinson hired private investigators to find the journalists’ private addresses in what he described as an attempt to “put pressure on them”, according to the BBC. He told the court he had not intended to scare the journalists but to “bring the Daily Mail to the table”, saying he had “panicked” after his location was published and felt it “endangered” his family.
The court heard that Robinson published the journalists’ personal information on his X account and told Young by phone that he was “coming to get” him. Young and Dirnhuber said they hired private security and left their homes as a result.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “There are legitimate and established routes that can be pursued by people who have concerns or complaints about their treatment by the media.” The force said Robinson instead made “threatening online posts in the knowledge that they would almost certainly lead to his followers to target and intimidate those journalists.”
A spokesman for the journalists said: “This kind of intimidatory behaviour is not acceptable, and anyone behaving in such a way to intimidate, harass and threaten others either online or in the real world can expect to be investigated and brought before the courts, as was the case here.”
Responding to the verdict on X, Robinson wrote: “Just insane, the whole fucking thing is insane. We fight on.”
Restore Britain party leader Rupert Lowe criticised the ruling, saying Robinson has “not been treated fairly by our establishment for many years, and today is the latest example of that.” Lowe added: “To be honest, I believe it is a disgrace. He was right on the rape gangs. The state was wrong. They want to vilify him for that.”
Robinson has been jailed on several previous occasions, most recently for contempt of court after breaching an order barring him from repeating claims about a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him for libel. He also served time at Belmarsh Prison after filming grooming gang offenders outside court; the men, predominantly of Pakistani heritage, were later convicted of a “campaign of rape and other sexual abuse” against young girls.
