Searchlight magazine identified the "Tommy Robinson" involved with the EDL as Lennon, and reported that he had served a twelve-month prison sentence for assaulting an off-duty police officer who had intervened to stop a domestic incident between Lennon and his partner Jenna Vowles.[17] He has been convicted for drug offences, and in 2005 for assault.[20]
On 24 August 2010, Robinson was involved in a fight between supporters of Luton Town and Newport County in Luton, on the evening the two clubs played at Kenilworth Road. Lennon reportedly led the group of Luton fans, and played an integral part in starting the 100-man brawl, during which he chanted "EDL till I die". Eleven months later, in July 2011, he was convicted of having used "threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour" on the night of the incident. He was given a 12-month community rehabilitation order and a three-year ban from attending football matches. He was also sentenced to 150 hours' unpaid work, and ordered to pay £650 in costs.[21]
Robinson was arrested after an EDL demonstration in Tower Hamlets on 3 September 2011 for breach of bail conditions, as he had been banned from attending the demonstration. After his arrest, Robinson began a hunger strike in custody in Bedford Prison, saying he was a "political prisoner of the state"[22] and refused to eat what he believed was halal meat.[23] A local paper reported that Bedford Prison sources said the hunger strike lasted less than 24 hours.[24] A handful of EDL supporters protested outside the prison in support of Robinson during his incarceration, peaking in a turnout of 100 protesters on 10 September.[25][26][27] Robinson was released from prison on 12 September.[28]
On 29 September 2011 he was convicted of common assault after headbutting a fellow EDL member at a rally in Blackburn in April that year. [29] He was given a 12-week jail term, suspended for 12 months.[30]
On 8 November 2011, Robinson held a protest against the ban on wearing a poppy for the England team on the rooftop of the FIFA building in Zurich. He was fined £3000 and jailed for three days.[31]
On 28 November 2012, Robinson was charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation in relation to a mortgage application. [32]
On 7 January 2013 Robinson pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to using someone else's passport—"possession of a false identity document with improper intention"—to travel to the United States in September 2012, and was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment.[20] He was sentenced under the name of Stephen Lennon, but the judge added that he suspected it was not his true name, in the sense that it was not the name on his own passport (not the borrowed one), Paul Harris. Robinson was released on electronic tag on 22 February 2013.[33]
On 29 June 2013 Robinson was arrested for allegedly obstructing police after attempting to do a charity walk dedicated to the Death of Lee Rigby.[34]
