EXCLUSIVE： Tommy Robinson discusses contempt verdict with Andrew Lawton
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Summary
Tommy Robinson has been found guilty of three counts of contempt of court by the Old Bailey in London. The three counts were brought forward by the Attorney General on behalf of the Home Office and the Crown Prosecution team.
Transcript
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Outside the Old Bailey in London, just under one hour ago, Tommy Robinson was
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found guilty of the three counts of contempt of court that were put before
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him by the Attorney General. With Tommy now, Tommy you said, not 30 minutes
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before the judges issued their decision, that you knew it was going to go down
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this way. Why was that? Well they couldn't allow me to go knock
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guilty. If they allow me to get not guilty, it basically tells the world that
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they kidnapped a journalist for three months, put him on solitary confinement
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when he broke no law. You've sat in court. This is printed off of the judiciary's
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website, their website. It clearly states courts have no power under section
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4-2 to prevent publication of material that's already in the public domain. It
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was agreed in court that everything I said was in the public domain. What
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they've said, what the government have said, is that that's wrong. Well it's on
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your website. It's on the government's judiciary website under the Court of Law's
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rules. So they've gone against the law. They found me in contempt because they've
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said that me asking someone walking into court how they feel about their
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sentence is contempt. And me taking a photo of someone. Now you watched the video
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that was played in court. Yeah. Of a BBC journalist doing an identical thing to me.
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And there's nothing wrong with her doing it. It's because of me. So I've been
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tried and convicted of who I am. I believe this is an attempt to not just
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silence me but silence the movement. I generally think they'll put me in jail and
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I generally think I'll be killed in prison. And I think that's what this is
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about. One of the cases made by the lawyer for the Attorney General was that if we
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let you get away with what you did, everyone will be able to get away with it in
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the future. Do you think that will work the other way? If we let the government
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get away with doing what they did to you, they could do it to the BBC next week, to
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Press Association the week after. And the media doesn't seem to understand that.
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They can do it. No, no. The media are celebrating this. The media are celebrating
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this. The media, they don't act as journalists. They act as activists. They act as
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political activists now. And I'd say like this is more about I think stopping any
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normal citizen journalist. The rise of independent journalism. They don't want it. And this
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is to scare the hell out of people. You can't even ask someone, how are you feeling about
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your verdicts? Or you're being contemptuous. It sets the precedent. I'm going to appeal
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it more so I'm gutted because my kids break up from school next week for six weeks. And
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I got put in jail last year this time when my kids were on six week holidays. So I'm gutted.
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The lawyer for the Attorney General in there kept saying as though it was an indictment of
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you that you spoke of the people's media. The government is terrified of that concept.
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Why is that? Because they know the people are listening to us.
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They know the trust in media is gone. They spoke about rebuilding the trust in the judiciary
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system. Do you think this is going to rebuild the trust? People, what they should realise
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is that millions of people, any one of you can go watch the video of me outside Leeds Crown
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Court, yeah? They've said I was aggressive. I was not aggressive. The video's there. The
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evidence is there. They've said that I encourage my supporters to harass the men. That's a lie.
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It's not there. It's just a lie. It's an outright lie. And I expected the leaders,
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the lead judges of the old Bailey and the Queen's bench to be principled on law and judge
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on law, not judge on who I am. And it's okay for one person to do it, but not the other.
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It's just proved we know we have a corrupt media. Everyone knows that. We've just proved
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Tommy Robinson, thanks for your time. Get with your family. I know that's your plan.