Right. Tommy Robinson, oops, I mean the EDL. Ol’ Tommy is still in jail awaiting trial on January 2013.

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (born 27 November 1982), also known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson

Arrests

Lennon was arrested after an EDL demonstration in Tower Hamlets, as he had been banned from attending the demonstration. After his arrest, Lennon began a hunger strike in custody in Bedford Prison, saying he was a “political prisoner of the state” and refused to eat what he believed was halal meat. A local paper reported that Bedford Prison sources said the hunger strike lasted less than 24 hours. A handful of EDL supporters protested outside the prison in support of Lennon during his incarceration, peaking in a turnout of 100 protesters on 10 September. Lennon was released from prison on 12 September.

On 29 September 2011 he was convicted of common assault after headbutting a man who had attacked him with a razor at a rally in Blackburn in April that year. The judge stated that a custodial sentence could not be ruled out.

On 8 November 2011, Lennon held a protest against the ban on wearing a poppy for the England team on the rooftop of the FIFA building in Zurich. He was fined 3000 and jailed for three days.

On 20 October 2012, Lennon was arrested for an alleged assault.

On 22 October 2012, Lennon appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court charged with using someone else’s passport to travel to the United States in September 2012 (“possession of a false identity document with improper intention”). He was remanded in custody until he is due to appear in court in January 2013.

Assault

According to Robinson he was assaulted on 22 December 2011 after pulling over his car as another car flashed its lights at him. He claimed that a group of three men attacked and beat him, until being stopped by the arrival of a ‘good Samaritan’. Robinson said that the attackers were of Asian appearance. A CT scan revealed a “blemish to the brain”.