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Tommy Robinson is due to be released from prison within days after his 18-month sentence for contempt of court was cut by four months.
The high court reduced the sentence for the civil offence, for which Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was jailed in October. He was sent to prison after admitting multiple breaches of an injunction, made in 2021, that prevented him from repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him for libel.
The sentence was made up of a 14-month “punitive” element and a four-month “coercive” element, with the sentencing judge, Mr Justice Johnson, telling Robinson the coercive element could be taken off his sentence if he were to “purge” his contempt by taking steps to comply with the injunction.
Robinson, who had been due for release on 26 July, applied to purge his contempt at a hearing on Tuesday, with his lawyers telling the court he had shown a “commitment” to comply with the order.
In a ruling, the judge said that there was an “absence of contrition or remorse” from Robinson, but he had shown a “change in attitude” since he was sentenced.
“[Robinson] has given an assurance that he will comply with the injunction in the future, that he has no intention of breaching it again, and that he is aware of the consequences of what would happen if he breached the injunction again,” the judge said.
Robinson, who appeared via video link from HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes, showed no immediate reaction once the judgment was handed down. He is due to be released from prison within the next week, the court heard.
He was jailed last year after admitting 10 breaches of the injunction, after the solicitor general issued two contempt claims against him. The injunction came after Robinson was successfully sued by Jamal Hijazi, then a schoolboy, who had been assaulted at Almondbury community school in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in October 2018.
After a clip of the incident went viral, Robinson falsely claimed on Facebook that Hijazi had attacked girls at the school. Mr Justice Nicklin ordered Robinson to pay Hijazi £100,000 in damages and his legal costs, as well as making the injunction preventing Robinson from repeating the allegations.
The first contempt claim alleged Robinson “knowingly” breached the order on four occasions, including by having “published, caused, authorised or procured” a film called Silenced, which contains the libellous allegations, in May 2023.
The film was pinned to the top of Robinson’s profile on X, while he also repeated the claims in three interviews between February and June 2023. The second claim was issued in August last year and concerned six further breaches, including playing the film at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London last summer.
When Robinson was sentenced, Johnson said he could “purge” his contempt by showing “a commitment to comply with the injunction,” which could include steps such as removing Silenced and other publications that breached the injunction from his social media accounts.
In March, Robinson lost a bid to bring a legal challenge against the Ministry of Justice over his segregation from other prisoners while in prison.
He also lost a challenge to his sentence at the appeal court in April, but three senior judges said he could “still reduce the period he has to spend in custody by taking the steps identified” by Johnson.
