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

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

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Quinn, B. (2026, October 20). Tommy Robinson threatened to publish details about journalist’s family, court told. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/oct/20/tommy-robinson-phoned-journalist-threat-publish-details-family-court

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Quick Summary

In Southwark Crown Court, it was reported that far-right activist Tommy Robinson threatened to publish personal details about journalists Andrew Young and Jacob Dirnhuber after their articles on him in the MailOnline. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, allegedly called Young threatening to expose his family’s information and made Dirnhuber feel compelled to move due to safety concerns. The court heard that these incidents occurred following a controversial article published by the MailOnline titled "Stoking race riots from his sunbed," which Robinson believed targeted him during his time in Cyprus.

Written by AI on 2026-10-20, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

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 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 11 other(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 20% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.

Tommy Robinson arrives at court ahead of harassment trial Same event

Evening Standard

Hedges 1 of 4 claims Outlet record 64/100

Tommy Robinson tells trial journalists know ‘I’m not coming to beat them up’ Different event

Evening Standard

Hedges 1 of 20 claims Outlet record 64/100

“The articles describe different parts of Tommy Robinson's legal proceedings, with Article A detailing threats made during a phone call and Article B describing his testimony in court about journalists' reactions to social media posts.”

Tommy Robinson tells court he was panicked and terrified after Daily Mail story Different event

Evening Standard

Hedges 1 of 26 claims Outlet record 64/100

“Article A describes threats made by Tommy Robinson against a journalist, while Article B details his testimony in court about being panicked and terrified after a Daily Mail story was published.”

Smiling Tommy Robinson arrives at London court to face trial over claims he harassed two journalists Different event

Evening Standard

⚖️ Leans left Hedges 1 of 6 claims Outlet record 64/100

“Article A describes Tommy Robinson's arrival at court for his trial, while Article B details threats allegedly made during the harassment period before the trial.”

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

The Guardian

Hedges 1 of 22 claims Outlet record 66/100

“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.”

Tommy Robinson guilty of harassment because this is not a vigilante world, jury told Different event

The Guardian

Hedges 2 of 24 claims Outlet record 66/100

“The articles describe different stages of legal proceedings involving Tommy Robinson's harassment charges; one reports on alleged threats made in a telephone call, while the other discusses the prosecution's case during the trial.”

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

The Guardian

Hedges 5 of 22 claims Outlet record 66/100

“While both articles describe Tommy Robinson's trial for harassing journalists, they refer to different aspects or incidents of alleged harassment during the same broader court proceedings.”

Tommy Robinson used ‘bully-boy tactics’ to frighten journalists, court told Different event

Evening Standard

Hedges 3 of 20 claims Outlet record 64/100

“The articles describe different aspects of Tommy Robinson's legal proceedings related to alleged harassment but do not clearly indicate they are reporting on the exact same incident at the same time.”

Tommy Robinson used ‘bully-boy tactics’ to frighten journalists, court told Different event

Evening Standard

⚖️ Leans left Hedges 4 of 37 claims Outlet record 64/100

“While both articles discuss Tommy Robinson's harassment charges against journalists, they describe different methods of harassment (social media threats vs. telephone threats) over distinct periods, suggesting separate incidents.”

Tommy Robinson used 'bully-boy' tactics to harass two Daily Mail journalists, court hears Different event

Daily Mail

⚖️ Leans left Hedges 6 of 44 claims Outlet record 69/100

“While both articles describe threats made by Tommy Robinson against Daily Mail journalists, Article A focuses on sending photographers to the journalists' homes and circulating photos of their residences, while Article B describes a specific threat over the phone involving publishing family details. These appear to be different incidents within the same broader harassment case.”

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

20%

4 of 20 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

Leans left

of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate

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 2026-10-20 · 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 · 2937 article(s) · 6 correction(s) detected

Running correction rate · 6 correction(s)

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Who wrote this

Ben Quinn

9 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction

🔮 Robinson had posted a video in which he told Daily Mail journalists he would find them after they wrote about his alleged role influencing England’s 2024 riots.

2026-10-23 · assertive framing · Tommy Robinson guilty of harassment because this is not a vigilante world, jury told

🔮 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 found guilty of harassing journalists

2026-10-28 · The Guardian

Tommy Robinson guilty of harassment because this is not a vigilante world, jury told

2026-10-23 · The Guardian

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

2026-10-22 · The Guardian

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

2026-10-19 · The Guardian

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

All 9 articles by Ben Quinn →

Topics

Cyprus Mail MailOnline Southport Southwark

Subjects

Robinson PERSON · 10× Young PERSON · 7× Cyprus GPE · 4× Tommy Robinson PERSON · 4× Mail ORG · 3× Dirnhuber PERSON · 2× Jacob Dirnhuber PERSON · 2× MailOnline ORG · 1× Southport GPE · 1× Stephen Yaxley-Lennon PERSON · 1×

Narrative

The freelance journalist, who was working for the Mail, said in a witness statement read out by a prosecutor that he was still in Cyprus on 5 August 2024 when he became aware that his home address had been posted on X by an anonymous account, along with the words “please be sure to congratulate him”. “This made me very concerned that my address had been put on X by a Tommy Robinson supporter,” Young said.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-20

🔮 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 · The Guardian

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

Claims (20 extracted, 4 hedged)

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. asserted

court → know → him

The alleged threats were said to have been made in a telephone call by Robinson to one of a number of journalists involved in reporting on his activities after the 2024 Southport killings, when he was accused of influencing the subsequent riots. asserted

he → allege → riots

Robinson, 42, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is charged with two counts of harassment causing fear of violence to two MailOnline journalists, Andrew Young and Jacob Dirnhuber, in 2024. asserted

name → charge → 2024

He denies the charges. asserted

He → deny → charges

A recording of Young responding to Robinson’s call after the journalist had tracked him down to Cyprus was played to Southwark crown court, which also heard that Young’s address had been published online by an anonymous X account. asserted

address → respond → account

The court also heard that unknown men started appearing outside Young’s home and that of another journalist working with him. “My main concern was that while he may not physically harm me, he had 800,000 followers on X at the time who might have been tempted to seek revenge on me or my home or my family for what I had written,” Young said in a statement read out in court. uncertain

Young → hear → court

Robinson, who attended court with a large number of supporters, was said to have become enraged after the Mail published a story about him with the headline: Stoking race riots from his sunbed. asserted

Mail → attend → sunbed

Jacob Dirnhuber, another of the journalists Robinson allegedly tried to intimidate, said it was the Mail’s view that Robinson was working, with tweeting being part of his day job and how he made money, and so they felt they could legitimately report on his activity in Cyprus. uncertain

they → try → Cyprus

They did not publish any identifiable images of his children. asserted

They → publish → children

Dirnhuber, his partner and their dog had to leave their home address after Robinson tweeted images of the journalist online and allegedly messaged him photographs of an unknown woman, the court was told. uncertain

court → have → woman

Dirnhuber said in his witness statement that he felt he would be “looking over my shoulder for a long time”, adding: “I have the knowledge that Tommy Robinson knows my address and my last name is very identifiable. asserted

name → say → address

The alleged harassment may have had an “adverse impact” on his “willingness” to cover certain stories, he added. uncertain

he → allege → stories

Young said he worried someone would come to his home address after it was leaked on social media platform X by what appeared to be a Robinson supporter, jurors heard. asserted

jurors → say → X

Young → work → supporter

He later received a call from a man introducing himself as Tommy Robinson, who became “increasingly menacing, swearing and shouting”. asserted

who → receive → Robinson

Young said his daughter was out walking several days after the article about Robinson in Cyprus was published and heard two men in a car shout at her. asserted

men → say → her

She believed they also took a picture of her. asserted

they → believe → her

The trial opened on Monday, with prosecutor Ben Holt saying the case was about Robinson’s reaction to what he perceived to be “an unnecessary intrusion into his holiday”. asserted

he → open → holiday

Journalists and their family members had to flee their homes after “bullyboy, intimidatory tactics” were deployed against them, Holt said. asserted

Holt → have → them

The hearing continues. asserted

hearing → continue → ?