Huddersfield grooming gang: How Tommy Robinson 'jeopardised sex abuse trials'

The Huddersfield grooming trials were allegedly put at risk by Tommy Robinson after he flouted reporting restrictions.

The former leader of the EDL claimed the activities of the gang - who were convicted of raping and abusing girls as young as 11 - were being covered up because the offenders were of Asian origin.

In reality, reporting of the case was only being postponed for well-established legal reasons designed to ensure a fair trial. The restriction was put in place because the defendants were being dealt with in separate trials.

In cases such as this one, reporting is sometimes postponed until the final case so jurors cannot be prejudiced by reading accounts of previous trials.

Robinson claimed instead that the cases were being covered up because the men were Muslims in video footage which also showed him approaching defendants in the second trial as they approached Leeds Crown Court.

The video was viewed on social media 250,000 times within hours.

Robinson was given a 13-month jail term by Judge Geoffrey Marson QC in May, who warned him his actions could have caused the trial to be re-run, costing "hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds".

He was released from HMP Onley in Rugby on August 1 after successfully challenging the contempt of court ruling.

However, he was warned by Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett that he could be sent back to jail if a ruling of contempt of court is made at a fresh hearing, due to take place at the Old Bailey on October 23.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, later said: "The law's supposed to be blind, but it's not supposed to be deaf and dumb. I'm being specifically targeted for who I am. I'm on trial for speaking into a microphone."

But the former BNP supporter from Luton, whose case was taken up by the so-called alt-right in the US when he was jailed, was aware of the potential consequences of his actions at Leeds Crown Court.

He had been given a suspended prison sentence for contempt of court in 2017 after trying to film three Asian men and a teenager who were on trial at Canterbury Crown Court accused of gang-raping a teenage girl.

That trial was also subject to temporary reporting restrictions, which were also later lifted and the men involved were given 14-year jail sentences.

Giving Robinson the suspended sentence for contempt in that case, the judge said her decision on whether to jail him had been on a "knife-edge".

His lawyer Matthew Harding claimed Robinson had "deep regret" for what he had done in Leeds and had been "mindful, having spoken to others and taken advice, not to say things that he thought would actually prejudice these proceedings".

But Judge Marson said: "Not only was it a very long video, but I regard it as a serious aggravating feature that he was encouraging others to share it and it had been shared widely. That is the nature of the contempt."

The judge added: "Everyone understands the right to freedom of speech but there are responsibilities and obligations."

Robinson's link to the Huddersfield trials can be reported for the first time today after the judge lifted restrictions on the case.

A gang of men who embarked on a "campaign of rape and other sexual abuse" against vulnerable teenage girls in Huddersfield has been given lengthy jail sentences, it can now be reported.

Ringleader Amere Singh Dhaliwal, 35, was jailed for life earlier this year and told he must serve a minimum of 18 years in prison by a judge who said: "Your treatment of these girls was inhuman."

Dhaliwal is one of 20 men who have been found guilty of scores of offences in a series of trials at Leeds Crown Court.

Fifteen women told juries what happened to them between 2004 and 2011 when they were aged between 11 and 17.

The 16 already sentenced have received prison terms totalling 221 years.