Caption: British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, arrives back at the Southwark Crown Court in London on October 22, 2026
In Brief
- The Accusation: Far-right activist Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) is on trial accused of harassing two Daily Mail and MailOnline journalists in August 2024.
- The Evidence: Southwark Crown Court heard Robinson hired private investigators to find the reporters’ home addresses and posted cropped photos of one journalist’s family on X.
- The Defence: Giving evidence on Thursday, the 43-year-old denied intending to intimidate the journalists, claiming his actions were ‘totally reasonable’ to ‘put pressure on them’ after their reporting revealed his family’s holiday location in Cyprus during the 2024 UK riots.
By Helen Rowe
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British far-right political activist Tommy Robinson hired private investigators to help him track down the home addresses of two journalists who wrote stories about him, a court heard on Thursday.
Giving evidence, however, he denied the aim was to bully or frighten them after stories by the Daily Mail and MailOnline revealed he and his family were on holiday in Cyprus.
“It was not done to intimidate them,” Robinson told the court, referring to journalists Jacob Dirnhuber and Andrew Young.
“That was not my intention at all; my intention was to remove the fear and remove the immediate danger to my family.”
Robinson, 43, who is being tried under his real name of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has denied charges of harassing the two journalists through his X account between 5 and 7 August 2024.
He told the jury he wanted to find them to “put pressure on them,” as he felt the media outlet had endangered his family by deliberately revealing where he was on holiday amid riots in the UK.
Prosecutors told the opening of the trial earlier this week that the journalists had been reporting on “far-right influencers,” including Robinson, “who appeared to be encouraging” the disorder triggered by an attack in which three young girls were stabbed to death in July 2024.
The Southport attack, for which teenager Axel Rudakubana was jailed in 2025 for a minimum of 52 years, triggered a wave of shock and the worst mass disorder seen on UK streets in decades.
Robinson, who describes himself as a journalist, said the papers could have run the story without revealing his location.
“They shouldn’t have done that,” he said, adding it had been “endangering” for him and his family.
He said he had wanted to find the journalists to pose his own questions.
“I would find the men on camera and ask them how I was stoking race riots,” he said.
Exert ‘pressure’
The high-profile activist, who previously founded the far-right, Islamophobic English Defence League, is on trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court.
Robinson told the jury he had published cropped photographs on X of Young’s wife and daughter to gain the journalist’s attention.
A picture he posted of Dirnhuber was also “to put pressure on him,” he said, adding he felt his behaviour had been “totally reasonable.”
Robinson posted on X before the trial to thank US Tesla owner Elon Musk for funding his legal fees, which he said ran into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Questioned by the prosecution about a phone call to Young during which he allegedly told the journalist, “I know where you live,” Robinson denied it was threatening.
“It really wasn’t like that,” he said, highlighting that the Daily Mail had published a photograph of his ex-wife, which he wanted removed.
Asked whether he also screamed down the phone at Young, he admitted raising his voice. “I was panicked… I was angry,” he said.
