Thread by @lizziedearden

Tommy Robinson has characterised his case as an establishment crackdown, but his Facebook live posed a real threat to actual victims

For the first time, The Independent can reveal how close he came to causing the Huddersfield grooming trials to collapse

independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/…

The defendants had been split into three trials for practicality, meaning that evidence, witnesses and victims would crossover

Judge Geoffrey Marson imposed a reporting restriction under the Contempt of Court Act postponing reports of proceedings until the end of the last trial

When Robinson broke it in such extraordinary fashion - a Facebook live video viewed by 10,000 people in real-time and millions since - it was at a particularly sensitive phase

The jury was out in the second trial, with first group awaiting sentence and the third yet to come

Judge Marson ordered the video's deletion and jailed Robinson on 25 May 2018, hours after it was broadcast

His imprisonment, and a separate restriction banning reporting of proceedings against Robinson (that was challenged by The Independent) sparked international media coverage

On the first day back after the weekend, five defence lawyers backed an application to dismiss the jury, arguing it was “inconceivable” that jurors had not seen Robinson’s live stream or heard about it

One juror had mentioned his name as they re-started deliberations

Judge Marson dismissed the application and refused to question members of the jury on whether they had watched Robinson’s video

Who knows what they would have found out if they did. They later convicted all defendants and the third trial went ahead

independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/…

Another judge might have made a different decision, causing a lengthy retrial or the case to fully collapse

Robinson endangered the victims he claims to support. Despite his claims to "expose" grooming gangs, his main defence was that he read charges from a BBC article

Robinson claimed the “mainstream media” were not reporting case, but journalists from the Huddersfield Examiner were in court

He has also repeated false allegations that I broke the restriction with this article, which plainly does not report proceedings independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/…

Robinson has also accused me of breaking the separate section 4 on reporting proceedings against him, which I did not

The article was published before he appeared in court and before Judge Marson imposed the restriction

It reported his arrest, not court proceedings.

I successfully challenged that restriction in writing, along with a local journo in court, meaning Robinson's imprisonment could be reported

Reporters can and do fight disproportionate reporting restrictions. The one Robinson broke was not one of them

independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/…