British activist and founder of English Defence League (EDL) – Tommy Robinson was granted bail by the Court of Appeal (England and Wales) on Wednesday, after it ordered that he be retried for a contempt of court charge, The Guardian has reported.
Robinson whose real name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, was arrested outside the Leeds Combined Courts on 25 May, while reporting about an ongoing paedophile grooming gang trial. As per reports, he was handed a 13 months prison sentence within six hours of his arrest for violating a suspended sentence which he had earlier received for a similar offence in Canterbury.
His act of recording in front of the courthouse was deemed to be in contempt of court, which applies to people being jailed for speeches or publications which might seriously impede or prejudice the course of justice in a particular case, Independent has reported.
Robinson during the grooming gang trial was filming outside the Leeds court, the footage of which went viral on Social Media. He was subsequently sent to the Onley prison.
While granting him bail, Lord Burnett of Maldon ordered that Tommy’s Canterbury conviction would stand but his Leeds case would be retired. He has been granted bail subject to the condition that he would attend the retrial of his case. He has also been ordered to stay at least 400 metres away from the Leeds crown court.
The judge also observed that the finding of contempt against Tommy was flawed and the court should have waited to hear the case on a fully informed basis.
