Tommy Robinson is no martyr. Here’s how to stop him becoming one

We might not care for Stephen Yaxley-Lennon but we should care very much about what happens to him in prison over the next two months or so. Lennon, also known as ‘Tommy Robinson’, was convicted at the Old Bailey yesterday for contempt of court after he live-streamed footage of defendants on trial for sexual exploitation arriving at court.

Yaxley-Lennon had previously served time in custody for this but was freed on appeal pending a retrial. Just to make matters more complicated, he was also sentenced yesterday for an earlier contempt committed at Canterbury Crown court in 2017, again at a rape trial that involved four Asian defendants that attracted a suspended sentence, now activated. The upshot is ten weeks behind bars for interfering with the administration of justice in ways that might have jeopardised two trials for serious offences.

It’s not hard to see why the sometimes tortuous and opaque machinations of our criminal justice system is a wet dream for conspiracists like those operating around Lennon, both at home and particularly in the US.