Activist refused to give police his phone pin when stopped at Channel tunnel in July 2024
Police officers who stopped Tommy Robinson as he tried to leave the UK last year had reasonable suspicions that his phone contained information relevant to acts of terrorism, prosecutors have told his trial.
The far-right activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, refused to give police the pin for his phone because it had “journalistic material on it” after they stopped him at the Channel tunnel on 28 July 2024.
On the last day of the trial, prosecutor Jo Morris said the counter-terrorism powers used by police to stop Robinson exist to allow for intelligence gathering and that police had a reasonable suspicion that he still had links to far-right activists, even after the disbandment of the English Defence League (EDL).
“Although his membership of the EDL has come to an end, his views have not gone away. He is known for having those views and therefore it is a reasonable suspicion to think that on his telephone there may be information relevant to acts of terrorism,” she told Westminster magistrates court.
