Tommy Robinson - A Grifter Returns

And so, after just nine weeks behind bars, Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, walked free this morning from HMP Belmarsh. As Sky News has reported, “Tommy Robinson has been pictured after being released from jail following his sentence for contempt of court. Photographs posted on social media showed the EDL founder smiling and with a beard outside Belmarsh prison”.

There was more. “Robinson was jailed after he filmed suspects on trial over the sexual exploitation of young girls and live-streamed the footage on social media - breaching a reporting ban … The 36-year-old argued he did not believe he was breaching the restrictions, which postponed the publication of any details about the case until the end of a series of linked trials involving 29 defendants”. The judges did not believe him, though.

“In her sentencing remarks, Dame Victoria [Sharp] told Robinson that ‘nothing less than a custodial penalty would properly reflect the gravity of the conduct we have identified’ …  She also said he had ‘lied about a number of matters’ and that he had wrongly ‘sought to portray himself as the victim of unfairness and oppression’”.

Lying is, of course, what Lennon claims others do to and about him. And it is this difficulty he has with reality that confronts him, now he is out of jail. That’s because he faces a series of legal actions - civil actions - for which the collecting try is already being passed round, as his “news” site TR News confirmed earlier this month.

Under the heading “THE FINANCIAL TERRORISM CONTINUES”, readers were told “If you are a Muslim terrorist, you have the legal winds behind you, supporting you all the way

… If you happen to be a Non-Muslim and not a terrorist in any way, shape, form or fashion who just so happens to fight against the political establishment, then the state will literally cripple you financially, especially so if your name is Tommy Robinson”.

How so? “Tommy has another two civil cases coming up soon, and they are expensive. Not only are they costly in terms of his defence, but as we can see above, they can be very costly in terms of prosecution costs as well … This puts Tommy is a severe legal, financial, and moral bind … The government know this, so crippling him financially is just another way for them to get at him, to make him silent”. And to that I call bullshit.

Note that Lennon “has another two civil cases coming up”. That means they have nothing to do with the Government - like the case he brought against Cambridgeshire Police, and which he lost. One of those civil cases is most likely the action brought on behalf of a young Syrian refugee about whom Lennon made a number of pejorative statements after an incident at a school at Almondbury, near Huddersfield.

That action is not being brought by the Government - hence it being referred to as a “civil claim”. It’s a straightforward defamation action. That does not stop TR News pleading “If anyone of you can [sic], please consider helping Tommy’s ongoing legal battles with the establishment … without you we can’t fight back and expose the corruption within our government and our judicial system”. So the grifting goes on.

The legal system deals with reality. Stephen Lennon deals with reality as he reimagines it. As long as he fails to figure out the difference, he’ll have problems. That is all.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet4