Tommy Robinson court case: Police officer who told EDL founder to leave pub ‘did not know who he was’
Sergeant says he thought Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s pseudonym referred to an ‘80s football hooligan’
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Your support makes all the difference.A police officer who moved Tommy Robinson on from a pub has told a court he did not know who the English Defence League (EDL) founder was at the time of the incident.
Appearing at Peterborough County Court under his real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the far-right figurehead is suing Cambridgeshire Constabulary for harassment.
He claims he was “humiliated” by officers from the force, who ordered him to leave a Cambridge pub after a football match and followed him part of the way to a train station, insisting he was targeted by police because of his beliefs.
But one of the officers involved in the incident told the court he did not know who the 36-year-old was.
“I didn't know what he looked like but I had heard the name," Sergeant Paul Street said. "My understanding was he was an 80s football hooligan."
Yaxley-Lennon said that in August 2016, he had taken his three children, aged between five and nine at the time, to watch Luton Town play an away game at Cambridge United.
He was at the Grain Store pub after the match when Sgt Street told him to leave because the group of Luton supporters he was with seemed likely to cause trouble.
"This is nothing to do with Tommy Robinson," the officer told the court. "It’s about keeping risk supporters out of an environment where they're likely to cause trouble.”
Acting for Yaxley-Lennon, Alison Gurden asked Sgt Street: “Why did you not ask about his children, where they were?”
He replied: “Because he wasn't with his children. He was with a load of men drinking beer.”
Yaxley-Lennon, who the court heard was upstairs in the pub when he spoke to Sgt Street, claimed he had been in and out of the establishment to see his children.
Ms Gurden asked the officer: “If I was to tell you Mr Lennon wasn't drunk and there wasn't any evidence of that, what would you say?”
Sgt Street replied: “I would find it very hard to accept that because he smelt of alcoholic drink. He was becoming irate and he smelt of alcoholic drink.”
The officer added that Yaxley-Lennon kept “trying to interview me on his mobile phone”.
Sgt Street said: “A discussion would be had off camera, then the camera comes out and it becomes a pantomime.”
The hearing was attended by a number of Mr Yaxley-Lennon's supporters.
Judge Karen Walden-Smith issued a warning to Ezra Levant, a reporter for Canadian right-wing website Rebel Media, about his coverage of the case.
She said Mr Levant had sent a number of tweets about proceedings that contained “pejorative, inaccurate and inflammatory language” and told him to refrain from posting similar messages in future.
The case continues.
Additional reporting by PA
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