Yesterday, after three trials lasting several months, twenty men were sentenced for their participation in a gang which groomed and sexually exploited girls as young as 11. The judge, Geoffrey Marson QC, had earlier told 16 of those men “The way you treated these girls defies understanding; this abuse was vile and wicked … As cases of sexual abuse with which the courts have to deal, this case comes top of the scale”.
As the BBC has reported, “At Leeds Crown Court, the ringleader, Amere Singh Dhaliwal, 35, was jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years … the judge told him: ‘The extent and gravity of your offending far exceeds anything which I have previously encountered … Children’s lives have been ruined and families profoundly affected by seeing their children, over months and years, out of control, having been groomed by you and other members of your gang’”. And the whole case could have been collapsed by one act of selfish idiocy.
That was the self-publicising intervention by Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, who rocked up at Leeds Crown Court and filmed several of the defendants. This could have collapsed the trial and let at least some of those now sentenced walk free. It would have been a monstrous disservice to the victims.
Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal, who was instrumental in getting the Rochdale grooming case to trial, told “Restrictions lifted so you can learn about the latest grooming trials in Huddersfield … My interviews will be broadcast … This was not the work of Tommy Robinson & his cohorts, his lot nearly derailed it again … It was the bravery of victims & professionals”. Quite. And many actual journalists had something to add.
Free sheet Metro reported “[Lennon] claimed the activities of the gang were being covered up because the offenders were of Asian origin. In reality, reporting of the case was only being postponed for … legal reasons … The restriction was put in place because the defendants were being dealt with in separate trials … reporting is sometimes postponed until the final case so jurors cannot be prejudiced by reading accounts of previous trials”.
And Yorkshire Post editor James Mitchinson devoted a comment item to Lennon’s ill-judged intervention titled “Why Tommy Robinson owes Huddersfield grooming gang victims an apology”. He pulls no punches: “As the accused faced their days in court, Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by the name Tommy Robinson, took to Facebook to broadcast live content which could have caused the trial to collapse. He did so under the auspices of being a champion of the people, effectively duping those who follow him into believing editors like me were covering up these repugnant crimes”. There was more.
“His narrative was that newspapers like The Yorkshire Post were too scared to tell the truth because the perpetrators are all Asian men. Now, as reporting restrictions are lifted, the truth stands there for all to see: Yaxley-Lennon put his own notoriety ahead of any thought for the only people that matter in this; the victims”. And more.
“In flouting the reporting restrictions he absolutely jeopardised their right to see punished the men who abused them in the most inhumane way imaginable. This newspaper has committed a journalist to proceedings every step of the way … knowing that the right time would eventually come to responsibly break the news. Now these men are jailed, the time is right to publish. It is also the right time for Yaxley-Lennon to apologise to the victims”.
And Matt Carr put it yet more directly. “This point can’t be made enough. It was made again and again when Robinson was arrested, and was totally ignored by his hero-cultists, who despite what they proclaim, have no interest in justice or in the victims, but only in using these vile crimes to whip up hatred”. He wasn’t finished.
“This shameless unscrupulous bastard nearly derailed the trial. He didn’t care. His followers didn’t care. His Fox News/Info Wars supporters didn’t care. Gert Wilders didn’t care. Katie [Hopkins] didn’t care. None of them gave a flying fuck … Instead they had the gall to present this self-aggrandising, publicity-seeking grifter as a martyr and a political prisoner. They compared him to Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi. In doing this they waded into the same sewer that he already inhabits”. Dead right.
He had this observation to add: “It’s a sewer where facts no longer exist, where truth is what they say it is, where justice does not depend on evidence but only on (their) opinion, where entire communities are tainted with the crimes of a few, where depraved criminality is presented as ‘jihad’ … It’s a sewer in which even survivors of sexual abuse like Sammy Woodhouse are attacked by those who supposedly care about them if they don’t blame these crimes on Muslims; where violations of the rule of law are presented as a state-directed conspiracy to silence the ‘truth’”. Got it in one.
Stephen Lennon also feeds off mistrust of the press - much of which is the fault of national titles which routinely propagandise, misrepresent, and when they feel the need for it, deal in wholesale falsehood. They, too, have contributed to Lennon’s rise.
But what the national titles do not do is to endanger criminal trials in the cavalier and reckless manner Lennon did in Leeds, and has been on the verge of doing elsewhere. As to his defence - that he was only reading out what the BBC had already reported - well, if that were true, what was he “exposing”? Nothing. Zilch. Zip. Bugger all.
Stephen Yaxley Lennon is not heroically trying to expose something that is being covered up. His actions could have denied justice to victims of the most vile abuse. Yet when he rocks up at the Old Bailey next week - no doubt with his faithful followers in tow - he will claim the mantle of heroic truth-seeker and victim of establishment crackdown. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is neither, and nor will he ever be.
It’s time for the Tommy Robinson myth to finally meet reality. And that reality is that he is a cheap thug and career criminal who has exposed no wrongdoing, secured no convictions, but used others’ suffering to enrich himself. He should hang his head in shame.
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Apologise? Hell will freeze over before then.
ReplyDeleteBut in whose favour was he trying to publicise this case? His exposure was what others had already reported: he didn't do any 'journalism'- digging for clues, asking questions of anyone other than rhetorically of his viewers. Maybe what he was trying to do was get them off, so that he could stir up that British justice isn't for Muslims, stir up a race war. And who would be the figurehead if that took place, even if (even better) he was 'unjustly' locked away for trying to bring this to the public notice...?
The guy cares for no one but his own image.
No, the real question to be asked is why there where reporting restrictions which stopped reports of the day to day proceedings. Other cases of this sort have not had such restrictions, Rolf Harris would have loved such anonymity!
ReplyDeleteOf course the reason is the same reasons why these crimes were ignored for so long, the fear of upsetting the muslims community, cohesion and all that guff. Anyone living in West Yorkshire has known this has been going on since the 60s, when we had to escort our womenfolk to and from there evening work at the mills and factories. Nothing was done then except to prosecute any bloke defending his woman and the result is this, vunerable young women being preyed upon. You can't say you weren't told and anyone like Anne Cryer who tried to make an issue of it was shouted down.
So that end result, the fear of an anti-muslim backlash if all this was out in the open has resulted in Tommy Robinson & Co. And they are now seen as truth seekers and the only people standing against the iniquities of islam. Whilst the powers that be are seen as collaborators in these dreadful crimes and facilitating the unwanted islamification of our society.
No amount of street violence from ANTIFA or skewed opinion such as this article is going to change the public opinion. Everyone needs to come clean and actually start creating all criminal acts whoever the perpetrators are equally. We can start by taking seriously FGM, forced marriages, girls being taken overseas - anyone seen the MeTooMovement?
Why don't the parents try and control their children?
DeleteOdd that no one in the MSM or yourself chose to comment on Bhai Mohan Singh
ReplyDelete(Sikh Awareness Society) doing a similar broadcast from outside the court while plod looks idly on. Can be seen on YouTube. I wonder why Tommy was picked on?
The Sikhs were reporting on the trial not trying to identify those involved.
Delete@2
ReplyDeleteI lived in Huddersfield in the 1980s.
Had womenfolk been escorted to their work in the mills because of the Scary Muslims™ I would have noticed.
They weren't, so I didn't.
Also, Antifa do not participate in "street violence". But good to see the "I don't always agree with Tommy BUT" brigade out in force.
And there is no "Islamification of our society".
Recycling far-right talking points
"No, the real question to be asked is why there where reporting restrictions which stopped reports of the day to day proceedings. Other cases of this sort have not had such restrictions"
ReplyDeleteBecause there were ongoing & interlinked trials, and the ongoing trial and trials could have been prejudiced and therefore abandoned. It's the law, stupid. Hence the reporting restrictions until all were concluded.
Didn't you do ANY research?
Oh and read this. It has long words, so you may need a friend to help.
https://thesecretbarrister.com/2018/08/01/the-tommy-robinson-judgment-what-does-it-all-mean/
Just think, if there were several Rolf Harrises charged with sexual offences and tried separately in different courts on different dates where the outcome of one trial would have a significant effect on the other trials and there were some of the Rolf Harrises who had pleaded Guilty. However, there was only one Rolf Harris.
ReplyDeleteIf any other person accosted the defendants on camera and broadcast the event through a media channel and made prejudicial statements prior to the verdicts then, imo, they should receive similar treatment as S Y L.
Someone commenting on this post has used a derivation of the word "Retard" to describe those they perceive as left-wing.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of language will not pas moderation.
Kindly be warned. Let's try and be civil.
As you were.
Great article, tbis peice of criminal thug racist shit thinks he knew more that information that the court did not have and all these dumb racist gammons flock to his defence becuase they are just as thick and bigoted as he is
ReplyDeleteAnon 12:41 – you really need to look at these cases before you just troll all over the place: Rolf Harris was not part of a gang, hence no need to fear his publicity influencing any others because his was the only prosecution. (Sorry – repeats what someone else has answered)
ReplyDeleteToday I walked past a pub; it was sunny and there were drinkers out in the front garden (mainly smokers, I guess). In front of me was a young lady walking along the street in front of the pub – dressed for the weather, like fashionable young ladies do when the weather is fine. But this attracted wolf whistles and all sorts of sordid invitations from the drinking morons that no woman should have to be subjected to in this day and age – invitations for her to sit on his face was possibly the least offensive from one loud, tattooed ‘gammon’ idiot in his football shirt (stereotyping maybe, but that is my experience).
Ready?
The girl’s father turned to remonstrate with them, quite prepared to take them on, to defend the honour of his ELEVEN YEAR OLD DAUGHTER. And not one of the scum was Asian, but they were almost all up for a fight with him. Fortunately little happened because the man’ wife, the girl’s mother, gripped on to her man’s arm and quickly pulled him away – to taunts from the vermin about him being ruled by the ‘little lady’.
Me? I reported it to the police (not a hope that anything will happen, of course), and I have emailed both the pub and the chain’s head office. I was prepared to step in and help the man if anything had happened, as apparently were several other onlookers, and the family also made a complaint to the police and were going to complain to the pub and chain too. I have also fired off a letter to the local newspaper, because no company likes that sort of bad publicity and I suspect that it will be a quiet day for the local rag.
My point? It is not down to one particular segment of society, so there is little point in trying to demonise a corner of the community that you have taken a dislike to - this is the sad state of Britain today. Half the population has to be prepared to accept being verbally abused when walking down a street because that is how it is, not how it should be. Ok, this was not grooming but most of those morons giving the girl sexist and offensive advice appeared to be the kind of scum that looked like they marched to free Robinson/Lennon in the summer; who knows what their politics actually might be, but they looked like right wing friends of Tommy and they were sexually abusing an 11 year old girl – and we all know how much the right wing enjoy employing stereotypes when it suits them.
Anon 12:47 – maybe because Bhai Mohan Singh’s broadcast did not feature members of the defence going in or out of court and was not taken in the precincts of the court? Little things, you know.
so where have the authorities been for the last twenty years, hiding behind political correctness taking the block asian vote and what of the kids thousands abused raped and how many killed these men feel nothing for these children they are kafars even the mosques have turned a blind eye while these nice asian men corrupted children, the authorities have betrayed these kids and it seems that the only people fighting for them are the "racists" that want to save them to me it seems that the offenders are the racists after all would it be acceptable if these were muslim children
ReplyDeleteRe that semi literate rant from Anon at 09.03, I suggest Anon reads the Jay report, page 100
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rotherham.gov.uk/downloads/file/1407/independent_inquiry_cse_in_rotherham
11.15 The UK Muslim Women's Network produced a report on CSE in September 2013 which drew on 35 case studies of women from across the UK who were victims, the majority of whom were Muslim. It highlighted that Asian girls were being sexually exploited...
I do hope Anon is equally as appalled at all the cases of sexual exploitation carried out by men of non Asian origin, white Brits for example? Catholic priests?
As for where have the authorities been, who is actually tracking down, prosecuting & jailing these men if not 'the authorities'?
It may suit you "liberals" to pretend for reasons of cowardice and/or political correctness that the problem posed by the “far-right” is equal to that posed by unassimilated Muslim communities utterly contemptuous of British culture and norms. But it just ain’t so. Ask any of the many thousands of girls across the country, for example, who have been raped by gangs like the latest rogues’ gallery, which was deliberately kept from us as long as legally possible.
ReplyDeleteThe abuse cases of non-muslims are small beer compared to the industrial production line style abuse perpetrated wherever there are Muslim "communities" Until liberal elites faces up to the truth, things are going to get a lot, lot worse before they get better. What is the problem with calling things what they are? Muslims allowed to come here and practice an alien medieval ideology and educate their children to the same standards, how will it get ever get better. This is an exclusively Muslim problem, deal with it as such!
And don't forget the abuse of their own womenfolk is hidden from our view! MeToo you are needed here!
I wish people would study this subject properly. While morons debate about how thousands of youngsters are being raped by thousands of killer paedogangs what is happening to Melanie Shaw and what on earth is going on with the tribunal supposedly investigating elite pervert rings. We are being led down dangerous cul-de-sacs. Look for the money.
DeleteAnon 13:20
ReplyDeleteThe Matt Carr quote in the article, and pasted below, is directed at you and others like you.
“It’s a sewer where facts no longer exist, where truth is what they say it is, where justice does not depend on evidence but only on (their) opinion, where entire communities are tainted with the crimes of a few, where depraved criminality is presented as ‘jihad’ … It’s a sewer in which even survivors of sexual abuse like Sammy Woodhouse are attacked by those who supposedly care about them if they don’t blame these crimes on Muslims; where violations of the rule of law are presented as a state-directed conspiracy to silence the ‘truth’”
The Ringleader was a Sikh. He was a Sikh convert in fact. Turning your back on islam is apostasy punishable by death according to true Muslims? So the wankmaggot followers cannot have been true Muslims can they?
ReplyDeleteNice one. You might find the case in Oxford interesting in which a Sikh gent tried to fight a paedoring and was met with derision and threat. The scum in question were not cabbies or kebab floggers but respected members of the community. Only complete honesty will destroy this vile, widespread perversion. I don't trust these Facebook vigilantes either. Wasn't Tommy boys bestest friend and aide-de-camp a convicted rapist?
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