Tommy Robinson has been released from Britain’s maximum security jail after a nine-week sentence that arose from him filming the faces of rape gang suspects outside of court.
The former English Defence League leader turned citizen journalist and anti-child rape activist was pictured leaving HMP Belmarsh prison Friday morning, sporting a beard and long hair from his time behind bars. Laughing with Ezra Levant, a Canadian journalist who has allied himself closely to Mr Robinson, the street organiser joked his first stop after prison would be for a haircut because his newly grown ginger-streaked beard made him look like a “little cowardly convert” to Islam.
Sparring with journalists from the British Daily Mirror newspaper which had turned up to photograph him on release, Mr Robinson said: “you read their lies, the Daily Mirror lied saying I was attacked in this prison, you made up an entire story.
“You’re a part of the propaganda being pushed out. My only message to them is you’re a disgrace and an embarrassment, if this happened in Hong Kong, Russia, China, you’d be up in arms but because I talk about Islam you’re silent. You are all complicit in the attack on free speech that we are witnessing. You’re all complicit in what’s happening to our country, all the media are.”
Mr Robinson also had words for the government, saying: “This should be an embarrassment for the British government, for the judiciary… [the judge said] it was unintentional, had zero effect on a trial would result in a journalist being put in prison, spending two and a half months in HMP Onley [and nine weeks at HMP Belmarsh].”
