Tommy Robinson ordered to pay £50,000 in costs after contempt of court jailing

Tommy Robinson has been slapped with a £50,000 costs bill after being imprisoned for contempt of court, with the full amount still pending. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon was handed an 18-month sentence in October when the Solicitor General brought a case against him for violating a High Court injunction placed in 2021.

Robinson conceded to ten breaches of the order that prevented him from repeating slanderous claims about a Syrian schoolboy. In a court statement released on Tuesday, Mr Justice Johnson noted that while the Solicitor General's legal costs totalled £80,350.52, this sum "does not appear to be disproportionate having regard to the nature of the issues in the case and the conduct of the defendant". He decreed that Robinson is to cough up £50,000 by 4pm on January 7 next year, with the balance due to be assessed later.

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Mr Justice Johnson declared: "I do not consider that the applicant's incarceration, or his claimed impecuniosity, is a good reason not to order a payment on account." He considered enforcement challenges shouldn't deter the ruling, adding: "Those factors might make enforcement of the order more difficult if the applicant does not voluntarily pay, but they do not amount to reasons of principle why the order should not be made."

Robinson found himself in the dock following a libel case brought by Jamal Hijazi after an incident at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield saw the then-teenager attacked in October 2018. After a video of the incident spread online, Robinson spouted false claims on Facebook, including that Mr Hijazi had assaulted girls at his school, which led to a defamation case.

The court ordered Robinson to pay £100,000 in damages to Mr Hijazi and cover the legal fees, and issued an injunction preventing Robinson from repeating the slanderous claims about the then-teenager. Subsequently, the Solicitor General brought forward two contempt charges against Robinson, asserting he "knowingly" violated the order, exemplified by echoing the libelous assertions in a documentary titled 'Silenced'.

During a session at Woolwich Crown Court on October 28, legal professionals argued Robinson was "thumbing his nose at the court" and eroding the foundation of law, including when he premiered 'Silenced' at a rally in Trafalgar Square, central London, earlier in the year.

In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Johnson pointed out Robinson had displayed "no remorse" for his conduct, describing it as "a planned, deliberate, direct, flagrant breach of the court's orders". He declared: "Nobody is above the law. Nobody can pick and choose which injunctions they obey and those they do not."