Thread by @StephanieFinneg

To those who support #FreeTommy / #TommyRobinson, from someone with the actual qualifications to know what they’re talking about. A THREAD.

I’m a reporter who witnessed Tommy both live streaming in front of jurors outside #LeedsCrownCourt and him being sentenced inside the court.

For justified legal reasons, the press have been *temporarily* banned from reporting on a trial that is being heard in the court, but *will* report on it later this year. At the moment, we cannot even say which trial this is.

But uninformed, ignorant and arrogant Tommy, running rife with conspiracy theories about cover-ups and #freedomofspeech and in spite of (as far as I know) not having a journalism accreditation, took it upon himself to ‘save the day’ and be a vigilante ‘reporter’. 😑

He livestreamed to a very large audience, making prejudicial and even inaccurate comments. He did this within earshot of jurors turning up to court. If they did not hear him then, they could certainly stumble upon the video online. He encouraged it to be shared widely.

And let me make this clear - that gloryhunter was doing this without having sat in to listen to that trial ONCE. All the information he had was from an online PUBLIC article. So what favour exactly was he doing for the British public? 🤔

He was jailed - despite concerns for his safety - because he is a CRIMINAL who BREACHED a suspended sentence for the SAME CRIME - one that can cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds. He should have learned his lesson the first time at #CanterburyCrownCourt.

WHAT THIS IS REALLY ABOUT: Defendants have the right to a fair trial, complainants shouldn’t have to give evidence twice because a selfish stranger caused a retrial and taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for his irresponsible ‘journalism’. Disagreeing with that is...questionable.

As the judge said: ‘Freedom of speech comes with responsibility’.

Robinson was given a second chance, he shouldn’t have been given a third. This is legal, NOT political. Stop with the #freespeech conspiracy theories already. 🙄

Moral of the story: if you want to stay out of jail, don’t go ONLINE and discuss or publish details of a court case that hasn’t been reported in the media - leave it to the PROFESSIONALS. Either that, or enroll in a #medialaw101 class and join the ranks 😒

On another note, the judge put a temporary reporting restriction on both his arrest and his court proceedings. That ban was scheduled to end when the jury had delivered their verdicts in the trial. Again, justified.

So NO ONE (not me, not the rest of the media there, not @WestYorksPolice and especially not his supporters, @GerardBattenMEP nor @KTHopkins) were allowed to report his arrest or his sentence until TODAY.

Anyone who DID publish these things online, including the national media who reported the arrest and everyone who tweeted about it, is in breach of a court order and therefore in contempt of court.

And look where that got Tommy 🙃👩🏻‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️ that’s all, folks. Sleep soundly 🤣

PS read the FULL details of the court hearing here: leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-new…