Ezra Twitter...https://twitter.com/ezralevant?lang=en Cops in Riot gear today.
Ezra live tweeting in court
The judges have now stepped out. I expect they'll be back before 10:30. I expect prison.
Quote:
Tommy Robinson News
Protest outside whatever prison I’m in on Saturday please
It's 10:42 and the judges have not come back. They had written submissions in advance, so I don't think the very brief oral submissions today told them anything new. I think they have their verdict. I think they're probably just coordinating their timing with the police outside.
A final indignity: the prosecution asks that Tommy Robinson have to pay for his own trial. £25,000.
Translation: Dame Victoria Sharp isn't concerned that her sentence will be transformed into violence against Tommy, or solitary confinement. Not her concern. Not her worry. I mean, her job's done, right?
Imagine a judge being told that sending a journalist to prison -- an unprecedented matter in the UK, for nearly a century -- would put him in solitary confinement or in the way of violence. And she just says: not my problem. You can why no-one trusts the establishment here.
There is movement. I think the judges are coming back. People are going back to their seats. The sentence will be announced imminently.
The judge acknowledges that Tommy was not trying intentionally to interfere; and she notes the trial was not in fact disrupted. She said he committed "reckless disobedience to a court order" and created a "substantial risk" to the trial
She says Tommy's Canterbury contempt of court matter is an aggravating feature. She mentions other, non-related convictions Tommy has, too.
She mentions the suspended sentence. She says "we are in no doubt" he should go to prison.
"Nothing less than a custodial penalty would reflect the gravity" of the case. She's sending him to prison. The first journalist since the 1940s to go to prison for contempt of court.
Dame Victoria says she wants to make an example out of Tommy. (That's what the Attorney General said -- he asked the court to punish citizen journalists.)
Dame Sharpe refers to the fact that the trial is 14 months late; she acknowledges the mental health impacts of putting Tommy in prison; and on his family.
Dame Sharp says says there is no sentencing guideline.
Tommy has "lied", she says. He plays "the victim", she says. Six months custody she orders.
Judge says she wants to send Tommy to prison immediately -- as in, this afternoon.
No suspended sentence.
Quote:
Voice on Live feed "Storm the court"
Activates the suspended sentence in full. She will make them run consecutively.
Therefore the total penalty -- new contempt, plus old contempt: 9 months.
Given that Tommy has spent 10 weeks in solitary, they're gong to reduce the total penalty.
So they'll reduce the penalty by 138 days.
That's why they added the two sentences together, and did them consecutively -- otherwise he would walk out right now.
They're also ordering Tommy to pay costs, but they will give his lawyer 28 days to give them submissions about costs. They're literally making him pay for his own conviction.
In sum: Tommy will be sentenced to prison for 19 weeks, and will be released half-way. So that's 9.5 weeks in prison. More than two months in prison. For journalism.
I've redone the math. It was complicated.
Because Tommy already served 10 weeks in solitary confinement, he will be given a certain amount of credit for "time served". There are also guidelines for mandatory early release. In the end, the judge said he will be sent to prison for 19 weeks, but let out after half of that.
Tommy will spend slightly more than two more months in prison. He'll be in prison all summer, and well into September, after his kids start school.
Tommy just sent me some notes and asked me if I'd go outside and read them to the crowd. I will do that. It will take me ten minutes or so to get out of the building. I will also post more videos at
http://www.RealReporters.ukThe judges have come back in. The lawyers are haggling over the wording of the order.
As you could see, it was complicated -- a six month sentence, plus a reactivated three-month sentence, minus the time served, divided by the early release rule. I think the actual number of days will end up being 66.
It’s done. Tommy walks out of the court, down the internal stairwell. He is carrying his prison bag. He’s off to jail. For journalism.
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