The far-right activist known as Tommy Robinson threatened to publish details about a journalist’s family and warned him that they would have to move home, a court has been told.
The alleged threats were said to have been made in a telephone call by Robinson to one of a number of journalists involved in reporting on his activities after the 2024 Southport killings, when he was accused of influencing the subsequent riots.
Robinson, 42, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is charged with two counts of harassment causing fear of violence to two MailOnline journalists, Andrew Young and Jacob Dirnhuber, in 2024. He denies the charges.
A recording of Young responding to Robinson’s call after the journalist had tracked him down to Cyprus was played to Southwark crown court, which also heard that Young’s address had been published online by an anonymous X account.
The court also heard that unknown men started appearing outside Young’s home and that of another journalist working with him.
“My main concern was that while he may not physically harm me, he had 800,000 followers on X at the time who might have been tempted to seek revenge on me or my home or my family for what I had written,” Young said in a statement read out in court.
Robinson, who attended court with a large number of supporters, was said to have become enraged after the Mail published a story about him with the headline: Stoking race riots from his sunbed.
Jacob Dirnhuber, another of the journalists Robinson allegedly tried to intimidate, said it was the Mail’s view that Robinson was working, with tweeting being part of his day job and how he made money, and so they felt they could legitimately report on his activity in Cyprus. They did not publish any identifiable images of his children.
Dirnhuber, his partner and their dog had to leave their home address after Robinson tweeted images of the journalist online and allegedly messaged him photographs of an unknown woman, the court was told.
Dirnhuber said in his witness statement that he felt he would be “looking over my shoulder for a long time”, adding: “I have the knowledge that Tommy Robinson knows my address and my last name is very identifiable.
The alleged harassment may have had an “adverse impact” on his “willingness” to cover certain stories, he added.
Young said he worried someone would come to his home address after it was leaked on social media platform X by what appeared to be a Robinson supporter, jurors heard.
The freelance journalist, who was working for the Mail, said in a witness statement read out by a prosecutor that he was still in Cyprus on 5 August 2024 when he became aware that his home address had been posted on X by an anonymous account, along with the words “please be sure to congratulate him”.
“This made me very concerned that my address had been put on X by a Tommy Robinson supporter,” Young said.
He later received a call from a man introducing himself as Tommy Robinson, who became “increasingly menacing, swearing and shouting”.
Young said his daughter was out walking several days after the article about Robinson in Cyprus was published and heard two men in a car shout at her. She believed they also took a picture of her.
The trial opened on Monday, with prosecutor Ben Holt saying the case was about Robinson’s reaction to what he perceived to be “an unnecessary intrusion into his holiday”. Journalists and their family members had to flee their homes after “bullyboy, intimidatory tactics” were deployed against them, Holt said.
The hearing continues.
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