Tommy Robinson faces new contempt hearing after being released from prison

Tommy Robinson has been freed from prison on bail after judges quashed findings that he committed contempt of court in Leeds.

But the Court of Appeal dismissed the far-right figure’s case against another incident in Canterbury and ordered him to attend a new hearing where he could be jailed again.

The Lord Chief Justice took little over a minute to read out the judgment to a packed courtroom, silencing Robinson’s supporters as they started applauding.

Lord Burnett said the court was allowing his appeal only “in respect of the committal for contempt at Leeds Crown Court” and granted Robinson bail ahead of a hearing to take place at the Old Bailey in London.

Supporters who had gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice cheered as news of the judgment came through, as counter-demonstrators shouted “Nazi scum, off our streets” through a megaphone.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was released from HMP Onley later on Wednesday.

“I have a lot to say, but not to you,” he told journalists while flanked by two men carrying his luggage, before being driven away.

High-profile backers including the Ukip leader Gerard Batten, Dutch opposition leader Geert Wilders and the former Breitbart London editor Raheem Kassam hailed the verdict as a victory for “freedom of speech”.

But judges did not say Robinson had not committed contempt of court, and accused him of delaying the appeals “for tactical reasons and collateral advantage”.

They dismissed calls to quash findings that he committed contempt at Canterbury Crown Court in May 2017, saying criticism by Robinson’s legal team “had no substance”.

Robinson was handed a three-month suspended sentence for trying to film defendants inside the court during jury deliberations, after being told to stop and warned filming was against the law.

But Lord Burnett, Mr Justice Turner and Mrs Justice McGowan found that procedural failings by a judge who later jailed Robinson for 13 months at Leeds Crown Court “gave rise to unfairness” and meant proceedings were “fundamentally flawed”.

Robinson was arrested on 25 May after broadcasting a Facebook Live video that broke a blanket reporting restriction on an ongoing set of trials, and jailed hours later.

The Court of Appeal previously heard that footage of Robinson discussing the ongoing case caused jury deliberations to be paused, sparking an attempt by defence lawyers to have the case dismissed.

Judges found that while Geoffrey Marson QC was right to bring Robinson before him to have the video deleted and protect jury deliberations, the case was dealt with too fast and did not follow criminal procedure rules.

“There was no clarity about what parts of the video were relied upon as amounting to contempt, what parts the appellant accepted through his counsel amounted to contempt and for what conduct he was sentenced,” the judgment said.

“Whilst the judge was entitled to deal with the contempt himself, the urgency went out of the matter when the appellant agreed to take down the video from Facebook. There should have been an adjournment to enable the particulars of contempt to be properly formulated and for a hearing at a more measured pace, as had happened in Canterbury.”

They ordered the matter to be heard again at the Old Bailey “as soon as reasonably possible”, and bailed Robinson on the condition he attends the new hearing and does not go within 400m of Leeds Crown Court.

The judgment suggested that Robinson may have committed contempt both by violating reporting restrictions and with “generally prejudicial remarks”, including on the “ethnic and religious backgrounds of the defendants”.

It added: "These comments were, at least potentially, capable of amounting to a freestanding contempt of court."

Robinson’s barrister, Jeremy Dein QC, had argued that a “conglomeration of procedural deficiencies” had given rise to prejudice against his client and caused him to be handed a “manifestly excessive” prison sentence.

He argued that proceedings at Leeds Crown Court were “unnecessarily and unjustly rushed”, causing Robinson’s representative to miss potential mitigating factors that could have lowered his sentence.

“He did not intend to breach any [reporting restriction] order, albeit that he was aware that there was an order,” Mr Dein told the court, claiming that Robinson was “operating as a journalist” and attempted to be legally vigilant.

Court records show that through his lawyer, Robinson expressed deep regret for the “breach of integrity of the court system”, but was not asked to respond to the particulars of the allegations himself.

Lord Burnett recognised the “difficult and unusual circumstances” faced by the judge in Leeds but said it was “unusual, to say the least, for a man with three young children to be sent to prison at a first hearing without some independent inquiry into his family’s circumstances”.

“Where a custodial term of considerable length is being imposed, it should not usually occur so quickly after the conduct which is complained of; a sentence of committal to immediate custody had been pronounced within five hours of the conduct taking place,” he added.

The failings also meant Robinson was recorded as a criminal, rather than civil, prisoner and deprived of visits, free communications and other freedoms he should have been allowed.

The appeal was launched outside the 28-day time limit for challenging convictions, but was allowed after judges heard that legal meetings were delayed by Robinson being held in “effective solitary confinement” for his own safety.

His solicitors, Carson Kaye, said: “The rule of law and the right to a fair hearing are fundamental to every individual and this ruling is an example of the procedural safeguards of our system, and its potential for protecting every citizen equally.

“What makes the British system so unique is the ability to set aside personal feelings and deal with the law and each case on its merits.”

Stand Up To Racism, which led a demonstration outside the court, raised fears the judgment would “encourage racists and Islamophobes to build and organise”.

“Although it is dressed up as freedom of speech it is freedom of hate,” said joint national secretary Weyman Bennett.

“Every time these groups come out on the streets we see an increase in violence.

“If we have an increase in organisations like this then we are returning back to the days of the 1920s and I believe Islamophobia is playing a major role.”

Two large “Free Tommy” protests in London have seen disorder break out, with police attacked and demonstrators performing Nazi salutes and blockading a bus driven by a Muslim woman.

Robinson characterises himself as an “independent reporter”, but the Court of Appeal found that his interest in both the Canterbury and Leeds trials was “ethnicity or religion of the defendants”.

The 35-year-old reached national prominence after founding the far-right English Defence League in 2009, later leaving the organisation and failing to set up a British chapter of the German anti-Islam group Pegida.

Robinson’s activity has been interrupted by jail sentences for entering the US with a false passport, and mortgage fraud, while he has also been convicted of offences including common assault and threatening and abusive behaviour.

Robinson was employed by the alt-right Canadian website Rebel Media but quit and now funds videos through donations from supporters around the world.

Research suggests his two-month stint in prison will prove lucrative, with the period seeing his Facebook followers increase by 10 per cent to just over 830,000 followers, and YouTube up 20 per cent to 230,000.

Followers from as far afield as Istanbul and Washington have sent Robinson almost £20,000 worth of Bitcoin, including a payment of more than £5,500 which passed through his Bitcoin wallet on the day he was jailed.