Tommy Robinson Faces Defamation Armageddon

[Update at end of post]

When someone sets their lawyers on you, the rules are straightforward: you act on any threat of action, involve your own lawyers as a priority, and settle as early as possible, if settle you must. There may be negotiation, haggles over wording and costs, and all manner of to and fro, but what you do not do is to carry on as if nothing had happened and expect it to go away. Just ask pro-am motormouth Katie Hopkins.

The lesson learned by Ms Hopkins - it cost her around £500,000 - appears not to have been taken on board by Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson. Since he went back to jail earlier this year for contempt of court, Lennon’s pulling power, and with it the ability to raise funds to retain lawyers and contest legal actions, has diminished. But the court cases, in the meantime, are piling up.

Jamal, the Syrian refugee who was attacked near his school in Huddersfield and about whom Lennon made a number of accusations he is having difficulty standing up, has had defamation proceedings taken up on his behalf. The case has reached the High Court. Lennon claims the case is “financial terrorism” and has admitted that it will cost him £650,000 if he loses. He has failed to learn Ms Hopkins’ lesson.

Instead, he has blustered “Why should I apologise when it’s the truth?” Well, if it was “the truth”, he wouldn’t be talking about losing £650k over it. And he would be taking more care about what he says about Mohammad Tahir, who he claims launched the crowdfunder for Jamal’s legal action. He claims Tahir is in prison in Pakistan accused of importing heroin. The man with that name in a Pakistani jail is charged with EXPORTING the drug.

And then comes the admission. It’s going to be difficult for him. “I know that from the last two days of donations. It’s dead”. And Lennon, for whom intimidation is a stock in trade, claims he has been intimidated. He just can’t put a zip on his North and South.

All of which means no-one should be surprised that there is another legal case out there, this time on behalf of historian and campaigner Mike Stuchbery, who Lennon aggressively doorstepped earlier this year - twice - doxxing him in the process. Lennon made a number of highly creative accusations against Stuchbery, who has since moved to Germany.

Now a fundraising page has been set up to help with Stuchbery’s legal costs (see HERE). He has told that “[Lennon’s] actions have cost me a lot, in terms of health and professional opportunities. It will take years to get back where I was before he directed his followers at me, with patently untrue allegations”. So the claim could be a seriously big one.

And there may be more to come: Roanna Carleton Taylor, who organised the fundraiser, has warned “We intend to document, pursue and fund legal action to make Lennon and his gang members pay for each and every illegal action they commit … To this end we ask anyone who believes they have a legitimate case to sue Lennon to come forward”.

Stephen Yaxley Lennon doorstepped several individuals before he went after Stuchbery, one of whom is typing this post. Once Mike Stuchbery has finished with the EDL founder, there will be no shortage of others to follow him. That’s not a threat. That’s a promise.

The era of Tommy Robinson intimidation was for a time, but not for all time.

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[UPDATE 1750 hours: Lennon got the wrong Mohammad Tahir. The one in a Pakistani jail is not the one involved in crowdfunding for Jamal.

To make the accusation of heroin smuggling against someone who is innocent is, you guessed it, defamatory. So that could be yet another legal case landing on Lennon's manor.

They just seem to be piling up. What a deserving chap]