Tommy Robinson’s ‘investigative journalist’ claims sparks ridicule

Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) continues to insist he’s a “journalist”, despite being wanted on contempt of court charges many bona fide journalists do a pretty good job of avoiding.

Yaxley-Lennon, who was also successfully sued for defamation by a Syrian schoolboy, has been accused of stoking far-right riots across the country following the fatal stabbing of three girls at a Taylor Swift dance event on July 29th - all while holidaying in Cyprus.

After proper journalists used open-source intelligence (also known as OSINT) to track down the five-star hotel in which he was staying, Yaxley-Lennon claimed reporters had “doxxed” his location.

He’s now moved on to Athens.

Twitter users soon pointed out the irony of his seeking refuge in another country because he doesn’t feel safe, and the contrast of his luxurious hotel stay with that of asylum seekers staying in hotels set alight by far-right thugs in riots last week:

The founder of the English Defence League (EDL) was due to appear in court on 29 July for allegedly violating a court order not to repeat lies about the aforementioned Syrian schoolboy, named Jamal Hijazi.

The day before, he was arrested under counter-terrorism laws following his appearance at a far-right rally in London where he screened his film about Hijazi, titled Silenced.

Yaxley-Lennon continues to share the film on his Twitter/X account, and on Wednesday did so with the comment that “all I am guilty of is being a great investigative journalist that they can’t control”.

He’s actually previously been sentenced to 18 months in jail for mortgage fraud – a crime he admitted committing.

And this level of grandstanding has since been met with ridicule from fellow social media users, who have taken the opportunity to share the comment with their own mock displays of bravado:

From browsing old Instagram posts:

To finding a cheap train ticket:

While a warrant was issued for his arrest last month, Mr Justice Johnson ordered it not to be carried out “until early October” to give Yaxley-Lennon a period of time to indicate he would either apply to “set aside” the warrant or attend the next hearing voluntarily.

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