Activist Tommy Robinson wept in court when asked how his children had been affected by a news story about posts he made on social media from an overseas holiday during the Southport riots.
Robinson told a jury he would “not endanger any innocent family” and that he was “panicked and terrified” after the Daily Mail, and its sister publication the MailOnline, published a story about him while he was on the family holiday.
The 43-year-old, who gave his full name to the court as “Stephen Lennon” when he was called to the witness box on Thursday, said he was “shocked and scared” after the newspaper published a story about him while he was in Cyprus in August 2024.
He said he wanted to track down the journalists who wrote the MailOnline story about him to “question them on camera” but did not want to cause any harm to their families.
Tommy Robinson giving evidence at Southwark Crown Court (Elizabeth Cook/PA)
PA Wire
The defendant said he hired private investigators to find the home addresses of freelance journalist Andrew Young and editor Jacob Dirnhuber and take photographs.
He said: “I wanted the find the journalists,” adding he wanted to “put pressure on them”.
During his evidence at Southwark Crown Court, Robinson said he became aware of the story, which had the headline “Stoking riots from his sunbed”, after it had gone online and his phone “started going crazy with people messaging me”.
Robinson struggled to answer a question about how his children were affected by the story as he took tissues from a nearby tissue box and wiped tears from his eyes.
He replied that he left the hotel after the story was published, and that his family moved to a different location within the hotel after he spoke with security.
The defendant told the court he thought it was “totally reasonable … under the circumstances” to post a picture of Mr Dirnhuber outside his home on X, saying he wanted to “put pressure on him”.
Asked by defence barrister Alisdair Williamson KC if he wanted to expose Mr Dirnhuber to threats of violence, he said: “Not at all. I didn’t really think about what he was being exposed to.”
The defendant told the jury he wanted to question the Daily Mail about “the wrongness of what they had done” when he called Mr Young on August 5, in a conversation his alleged victim described as “menacing”.
“I just wanted them to acknowledge – is it OK? If I was to do this to you, would that be OK?” he said.
Robinson said “within hours” of the story going online, people were posting the name of the hotel he was staying at in Cyprus, with those publishing the hotel name “telling people to head there” and that “this is where I am for the foreseeable future”.
He agreed when Mr Williamson said that in the immediate aftermath of the murders of three girls in Southport he had made a “rather intemperate statement” but subsequently issued “calls for calm”.
Robinson told the jury: “Anyone following what I was saying would have seen I was trying to calm the situation the whole time.”
He said he had tagged Elon Musk in one of his posts on X about the Daily Mail article because there were guidelines against posting addresses on the platform, and he was hoping to get the article removed.
Asked about his state of mind, Robinson said: “Panicked, totally panicked. Panicked and terrified that what was online currently was about to change my wife’s life forever.”
Criticising the newspaper’s story, the defendant told the jury: “I would not endanger any innocent family.
“They could have run the story without giving my location.
“They shouldn’t have done that and this is not journalism, this is endangering us.”
He added: “I would find the men on camera and ask them how was I stoking race riots.
“They put the story out there and it’s everywhere and all of a sudden, it’s matter of fact.
“The main question I wanted to ask is: is it OK what you have done?”
The court previously heard Robinson used “bully-boy, intimidatory tactics” to frighten the journalists with a series of posts and direct messages on social media platform X.
The defendant, who founded the English Defence League, entered not guilty pleas to two charges of harassment causing fear of violence in July last year.
The trial continues.