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NewsUK News · 28 Oct

Tommy Robinson Found Guilty of Harassing Two Journalists

Tommy Robinson is guilty of harassing two journalists. We examine the court verdict and earlier documented incidents involving reporters.

Staff Reporter

Tommy Robinson has been found guilty of two counts of harassment causing fear of violence against journalists, after a jury heard how he targeted reporters and their families following coverage of his activities during the 2024 Southport unrest.

Editorial illustration of a UK courthouse with microphones and the headline Tommy Robinson Guilty of Harassing Journalists.
Illustrative image. Images © Fish for News

Stephen Lennon, also known as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and Tommy Robinson, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday 28 October 2026. The jury returned 10–2 majority verdicts on both counts after deliberating for more than 11 hours. He has been granted bail and is due to be sentenced on 16 December.

The verdict comes against a documented history of confrontations with journalists, including an earlier court order protecting a female reporter. Those other incidents were not charges in this trial and do not amount to further convictions in the present case.

What happened in the latest case?

The prosecution followed Daily Mail and MailOnline reporting about Robinson’s holiday in Cyprus in August 2024, when he was posting about unrest in Britain after the murders of three girls in Southport. Robinson said the newspaper’s coverage had disclosed the whereabouts of his children and placed his family at risk.

Police said he hired private investigators to locate journalists’ home addresses, arranged photographs outside their homes and subsequently published images on X. The posts included cropped pictures involving the family of freelance reporter Andrew Young. He also targeted Daily Mail editor Jacob Dirnhuber.

During a telephone call with Young on 5 August 2024, Robinson said, “I’m coming to get you”, the court heard. He separately told Dirnhuber, “I’ll be knocking at your door.” The jury heard further messages and a voicemail left for Daily Mail editor-in-chief Ted Verity.

Young was provided with close protection, while Dirnhuber left his home. Another journalist connected with the original reporting, George Odling, also temporarily left his family home amid safety concerns. The Metropolitan Police said the reporters feared for themselves and their families, including the possibility of Robinson’s followers acting on his posts.

Robinson denied intending to threaten physical violence. He argued he wanted to confront the journalists about what he believed was dangerous and unfair coverage of his own family. The jury nevertheless found the criminal offences proved.

“Nobody should be made to fear violence because of the work they do.”

Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said Robinson had used social media to conduct a campaign of harassment. The CPS confirmed the two convictions under section 4 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

The earlier case involving journalist Lizzie Dearden

In January 2021, Robinson turned up unannounced outside the home of Independent journalist Lizzie Dearden late at night, after learning she was investigating allegations concerning donations to his campaigning. He shouted abuse and made allegations about her partner that he subsequently accepted were false.

In October 2021, a magistrate imposed a five-year stalking protection order restricting Robinson’s contact with Dearden and her partner, and preventing him from approaching their home or workplace. This was a protective civil order, not a criminal conviction for stalking. It allowed legitimate public comment on her journalism.

Robinson appealed. In October 2023, a judge and two magistrates upheld the order, with some modifications to preserve his freedom to respond to reporting about him. The court described the late-night visit as a calculated attempt to bully, intimidate and frighten Dearden, whether to retaliate for her reporting or to prevent publication. The court also found that he had used a private investigator to obtain her address.

Dearden told the court that she had been frightened, had gone into hiding with her partner and considered leaving journalism. The appeal court rejected Robinson’s contention that the visit represented legitimate journalism. See contemporary reporting of the 2023 appeal judgment and the original 2021 order.

Other confrontations reported by journalists

Spain, October 2023: After the British newspaper The Olive Press reported on a villa in Spain used for Robinson’s podcasts, it said he claimed to have obtained its journalists’ personal details and threatened to visit a reporter’s mother’s home. The newspaper said it alerted Spain’s Guardia Civil. Read its original account. We have not established that the incident resulted in charges or a conviction.

Matt Shea, September 2026: Following Channel 4’s Dispatches investigation Tommy Robinson: Where’s the Money Gone?, Robinson went to a residential building he believed was associated with its journalist Matt Shea. In a 10 September interview with Dan Wootton, Robinson described hiring investigators and having people watch the property for five days in an effort to question Shea. His account included reference to Shea’s wife being seen leaving. Robinson said he had wanted answers about allegations in the documentary and denied trying to intimidate the reporter. The interview transcript records those comments. There is no finding of criminal wrongdoing in connection with this episode in the material reviewed.

These incidents differ in their legal status: the Dearden case resulted in a court protection order upheld on appeal, the 2024 incidents led to today’s criminal convictions, and the Spanish and Shea incidents are reported accounts without an established prosecution arising from them.

His public statements about protecting women and children

Robinson has made the safety of women and children a recurring theme of his campaigning, particularly when criticising immigration. Addressing his Unite the Kingdom rally in London in September 2025, he said:

“Our women, our daughters are scared to walk the streets.”

The statement was part of a speech criticising immigration policy, as reported by The Irish Times. Separately, the court’s findings in the Dearden case establish that Robinson’s own conduct frightened a woman journalist and her partner. The latest criminal case concerned two male journalists, but their families were also exposed to the campaign of harassment.

Those findings are relevant when assessing public statements about personal safety. They do not establish that Robinson physically assaulted the journalists or that every accusation made about him has been proved.

What happens next?

Robinson remains on bail ahead of sentencing at Southwark Crown Court on 16 December 2026. Harassment causing fear of violence carries a maximum possible sentence of ten years’ imprisonment for each offence; that is a statutory ceiling, not an indication of the sentence he will receive.

The case raises a wider press-freedom question about the distinction between robust criticism of reporting and conduct that causes journalists to fear violence. The jury has now decided that Robinson’s conduct towards Young and Dirnhuber crossed that criminal boundary.

Sources