The Aporia · Tommy Robinson tells court he had photos taken of journalists’ homes to pressure them

Tommy Robinson tells court he had photos taken of journalists’ homes to pressure them

Read the original at The Guardian ↗

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Quinn, B. (2026, October 22). Tommy Robinson tells court he had photos taken of journalists’ homes to pressure them. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/oct/22/tommy-robinson-tells-court-he-had-photos-taken-of-journalists-homes-to-pressure-them

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Quick Summary

Tommy Robinson, a far-right activist known as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, testified in his harassment trial that he hired private investigators to locate and photograph journalists' homes to pressure them into removing articles about him. He denies charges of harassing two MailOnline journalists, Andrew Young and Jacob Dirnhuber, but admits to sending threatening messages and voicemails to the editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail, Ted Verity. Robinson claims his actions were not meant to intimidate but rather to highlight what he saw as unfair coverage by the media.

Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-22, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Tommy Robinson tells court he had photos taken of journalists’ homes to pressure them

In his testimony at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, far-right activist Tommy Robinson (43) claimed that hiring private investigators to take photographs of the home addresses of MailOnline journalists Andrew Young and Jacob Dirnhuber was intended to "put pressure" on them rather than intimidate or bully. Robinson denied that his actions were designed to cause fear, stating, “I’m not coming to beat [them] up … they know that.” He also mentioned a voicemail left for the editor of the Daily Mail after obtaining their personal number.

Robinson is charged with two counts of harassment causing fear of violence towards Young and Dirnhuber in 2024. During his testimony, he argued that publishing a photo of Jacob Dirnhuber at his home was "totally reasonable" because he felt it necessary to get the MailOnline to remove an image of his ex-wife from their story about him being on holiday in Cyprus.

Despite these claims, Robinson acknowledged that the journalists involved feared violence due to his actions and those of his supporters. He stated, “I’m not going to argue” with their witness statements but added, "Under the circumstances I had no other options." The court heard that Robinson believed he was restrained in his voicemail messages and used getting addresses as a play card rather than an intimidation tactic.

Robinson's testimony continues to be scrutinized by both prosecution and defense teams. His actions during this period have been described as using “bully-boy tactics” to intimidate the journalists, according to prosecutor Ben Holt. The trial is ongoing with further evidence expected from both sides.

Written for “Tommy Robinson Trial For Harassment” on 2026-10-22, grounded in this article and the 11 other(s) covering the same event.

Why this leaning score

The model judged this article politically coded and scored it +0.35, but 1 quote(s) could not be found in the article and the other 2 are attributed speech rather than the article's own narration, so the score is not published.

Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.

Leaning score withheld for article 99758: no verified evidence · logged 2026-10-22

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 5% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.

Tommy Robinson tells trial journalists know ‘I’m not coming to beat them up’ same event · 100%

Evening Standard · 0.90 cosine similarity

⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 5% hedged 1 of 20 📰 publisher trust 65

“Both articles describe Tommy Robinson's testimony in his harassment trial on October 22, 2026, where he discusses hiring private investigators and taking photos of journalists' homes.”

Tommy Robinson used ‘bully-boy tactics’ to frighten journalists, court told same event · 95%

Evening Standard · 0.91 cosine similarity

⚖️ Leans left 🔴 11% hedged 4 of 37 📰 publisher trust 65

“Both articles describe Tommy Robinson's trial for harassment of journalists at Southwark Crown Court in relation to events from August 2024.”

Tommy Robinson used 'bully-boy' tactics to harass two Daily Mail journalists, court hears same event · 95%

Daily Mail · 0.91 cosine similarity

⚖️ Leans left 🔴 14% hedged 6 of 44 📰 publisher trust 64

“Both articles describe the same court hearing where Tommy Robinson is accused of harassing Daily Mail journalists.”

Tommy Robinson used ‘bullyboy, intimidatory tactics’ to threaten journalists, court told same event · 95%

The Guardian · 0.91 cosine similarity

⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 23% hedged 5 of 22 📰 publisher trust 66

“Both articles describe testimony and accusations during Tommy Robinson's harassment trial in October 2026.”

Tommy Robinson used ‘bully-boy tactics’ to frighten journalists, court told same event · 95%

Evening Standard · 0.90 cosine similarity

⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 15% hedged 3 of 20 📰 publisher trust 65

“Both articles describe Tommy Robinson's harassment trial at Southwark Crown Court in relation to his actions against journalists between August 5 and 7, 2024.”

Tommy Robinson tells court he was panicked and terrified after Daily Mail story different event · 95%

Evening Standard · 0.89 cosine similarity

⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 4% hedged 1 of 26 📰 publisher trust 65

“The articles describe different aspects of Tommy Robinson's testimony in his harassment trial, but they are not reporting on the exact same incident at the same time.”

Tommy Robinson arrives at court ahead of harassment trial different event · 85%

Evening Standard · 0.89 cosine similarity

⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 25% hedged 1 of 4 📰 publisher trust 65

“While both articles discuss Tommy Robinson's harassment trial, they describe different parts of the proceedings: Article A focuses on his arrival at court and charges against him, while Article B covers his testimony about using private investigators.”

Judge tells prospective jurors to ‘put aside views’ ahead of Robinson trial different event · 85%

Evening Standard

⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 50% hedged 3 of 6 📰 publisher trust 65

“The articles describe different moments in the trial: one is about jurors being instructed before selection, while the other reports on Robinson's testimony during the trial.”

Tommy Robinson threatened to publish details about journalist’s family, court told different event · 80%

The Guardian · 0.92 cosine similarity

⚖️ Leans left 🔴 20% hedged 4 of 20 📰 publisher trust 66

“While both articles discuss Tommy Robinson's trial for harassment of journalists, they describe different aspects of his alleged behavior: threats to publish details versus taking photos of journalists' homes.”

Smiling Tommy Robinson arrives at London court to face trial over claims he harassed two journalists different event · 75%

Evening Standard · 0.88 cosine similarity

⚖️ Leans left 🔴 17% hedged 1 of 6 📰 publisher trust 65

“Article A describes Robinson's arrival at court for his trial on harassment charges, while Article B covers his testimony during the trial about hiring private investigators and taking photos of journalists' homes.”

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

1 of 22 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

withheld

no quote in the article backed the model's score

Publisher signals

66/100

The Guardian's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Politics

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-10-22 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Guardian · 2295 article(s) · 6 correction(s) detected

Running correction rate · 6 correction(s)

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Who wrote this

Ben Quinn

7 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction

🔮 Robinson said he believed he was “restrained” in the voicemail he left for Verity, in which he said he would make him and his family famous, and went on to say he told the journalists involved that he would get their addresses because he was “using it as a play card”.

2026-10-22 · assertive framing · Tommy Robinson tells court he had photos taken of journalists’ homes to pressure them

🔮 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.

2026-10-20 · assertive framing · Tommy Robinson threatened to publish details about journalist’s family, court told

🔮 Robinson is accused of harassment causing fear of violence through X posts and direct messages, and an alleged telephone call on 5 August 2024 in which he is accused of telling Young he would visit his house, saying: “I’m coming to get you.”

2026-10-19 · mixed framing · Tommy Robinson used ‘bullyboy, intimidatory tactics’ to threaten journalists, court told

🔮 The alleged offences took place between 26 November 2024 and 21 May last year.

2026-10-08 · mixed framing · Royal Navy serviceman arrested under National Security Act

🔮 The Metropolitan police described the move as a “milestone” moment that paved the way for what it said would be “the very best possible evidence for charging decisions”.

2026-09-30 · assertive framing · Grenfell fire police investigators hand files on 20 firms and 54 people to CPS

🔮 The men – three residents of Westminster and two others from Camden and Willesden, all London boroughs – have since been released on bail while the police investigate “multiple lines of inquiry”.

2026-09-28 · assertive framing · Nandy labels Farage ‘master of conspiracy theory’ over Fairford claims

Also by Ben Quinn

Tommy Robinson threatened to publish details about journalist’s family, court told

2026-10-20 · The Guardian

Tommy Robinson used ‘bullyboy, intimidatory tactics’ to threaten journalists, court told

2026-10-19 · The Guardian

‘English nationalist’ content creators film themselves in asylum seekers’ house

2026-10-14 · The Guardian

Royal Navy serviceman arrested under National Security Act

2026-10-08 · The Guardian

Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 7 articles by Ben Quinn →

Topics

Cyprus Mail MailOnline Southwark the Daily Mail

Subjects

Robinson PERSON · 11× Mail ORG · 4× Dirnhuber PERSON · 3× Cyprus GPE · 2× Holt PERSON · 2× Andrew Young PERSON · 1× MailOnline ORG · 1× Stephen Yaxley-Lennon PERSON · 1× Tommy Robinson PERSON · 1× the Daily Mail ORG · 1×

Narrative

Robinson, 43, gave evidence and was cross-examined on Thursday, when he claimed he “felt it was totally reasonable” to publish a photo of Dirnhuber at his home because he was “in a race against time” to get the Mail to remove a photo of his ex-wife, which the Mail published in a story about him being in Cyprus, with the headline: “Stoking race riots from his sunbed”.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-22

2026-10-22 · The Guardian

Tommy Robinson tells court he had photos taken of journalists’ homes to pressure them · assertive framing

Claims (22 extracted, 1 hedged)

The far-right activist Tommy Robinson has told his harassment trial that he used private investigators to track down journalists who had written about his alleged role in the 2024 riots, and had photographs taken of their homes “to put pressure” on them. asserted

photographs → tell → them

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, denied in court that his actions, which included sharing photos of the wife and daughter of one of the journalists, were designed to intimidate and bully. asserted

which → deny → journalists

“I’m not coming to beat [them] up … they know that,” he said, referring to messages and telephone calls, including a voicemail message left for the editor of the Daily Mail after Robinson had paid to get his personal number. asserted

Robinson → come → number

Robinson is charged with two counts of harassment causing fear of violence to two MailOnline journalists, Andrew Young and Jacob Dirnhuber, in 2024. asserted

Robinson → charge → 2024

He denies the charges. asserted

He → deny → charges

him → give → sunbed

However, he conceded that when he sent messages to the journalists, spoke to one on the phone, and left a message on the voicemail of the Mail’s editor-in-chief, Ted Verity, he had not asked for the Mail to remove the image. asserted

Mail → concede → image

Robinson said he believed he was “restrained” in the voicemail he left for Verity, in which he said he would make him and his family famous, and went on to say he told the journalists involved that he would get their addresses because he was “using it as a play card”. asserted

he → say → card

The prosecutor Ben Holt asked him about Dirnhuber and his partner having to leave their home as a result of threatening emails he allegedly received, and about Young’s family having also considered leaving their home. uncertain

family → ask → home

“The entire situation, I wish didn’t happen, I wish that none of that had happened,” said Robinson. asserted

Robinson → wish → that

“I was unfortunately in a situation where I was panicked.” asserted

I → panic → situation

Referring to the journalists and how they felt about messages he sent to them, he told Southwark crown court: “They know I’m not going to come and beat them up. asserted

I → refer → them

They know that.” asserted

They → know → that

Holt continued: “They are scared of you, Mr Lennon,” to which came the reply: “They are not scared of physical violence from me.” asserted

They → continue → me

Robinson was also asked about messages and online posts directed at the journalists by others after he had started using his own X account to tweet about them, including one post from an X user who told Dirnhuber they would beat the “fuck” out of him. asserted

they → ask → him

Asked by Holt if he appreciated that messages such as this had been “generated” by his own output, Robinson said: “I don’t agree with any of these messages … asserted

I → ask → messages

I don’t know who sent these messages. asserted

who → know → messages

I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.” asserted

I → know → ?

At the time, violence was breaking out across England in the wake of the murder of three girls in Southport. asserted

violence → break → Southport

He told the jury he was with “my ex-wife, my three children and three other families and their children”. asserted

he → tell → wife

In the witness stand, Robinson claimed he had not “stoked” the riots, but tried to calm things. asserted

he → claim → things

The first day of the trial was told on Monday that journalists and their family members had to flee their homes after Robinson deployed “bullyboy, intimidatory tactics”. The trial continues. asserted

trial → tell → tactics