After an altercation at St Pancras station in London on Monday evening, which ended with an elderly man unconscious on the ground, Tommy Robinson quickly fled the country, apparently to Spain.
This is what we know so far about what happened:
Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was in London on Monday for two appointments.
The first was with the Metropolitan Police to discuss arrangements for the 13 September rally he and his followers are organising.
Physically unmarked
He posted online after that meeting saying they had been walking the proposed route from Waterloo to Westminster. At that point, Robinson was physically unmarked.
Next he went to the north London offices of London Real, the conspiracy-obsessed documentary production company of Brian Rose, an American far right winger, based in London.
Robinson was there to be interviewed live, in a programme to be streamed online at 5.00 pm.
When he arrived at the studios Robinson was sporting a cut to his forehead. He said he had had ‘a fight with a door’. It was bleeding and seemed very recent.
The interview, in which Robinson appeared rather agitated, went out on schedule at just after 5.00 pm and, according to Rose, Robinson spent about two and a half hours at the studio.
The St Pancras incident happened after that; British Transport Police and the London Ambulance Service have both confirmed they were called at around 8.40 pm.
So the suggestion, in the London Evening Standard and elsewhere, that the cut to his head may have been connected to the incident at the station is wide of the mark. He had already cut his head hours before.
Unconscious on the ground
At St Pancras he was filmed walking away from and then back towards a man who lay unconscious on the ground.
Robinson could be heard to say ‘He come at me’.
Someone claiming to have witnessed the incident later spoke to The Daily Mail.
The witness said he was on his way to a train platform when he “heard a loud commotion and arguing”.
“As soon as I reached the top of the escalator I saw Tommy Robinson and an older man facing off and standing very close to each other.
“I heard Tommy say, ‘Come at me then’ and then – bam – he punched the old man so hard that he was knocked out.
“It seemed very serious as the man wasn’t moving afterward.”
The emergency services were called and the man taken to hospital with serious but not life-threatening injures.
Robinson then left the scene and on Tuesday morning took the 06.45 flight from Stansted to Tenerife. He was filmed by a fellow passenger.
Before long, Robinson’s apologists had swung into action.
First up was his Urban Scoop podcaster mate, the American right winger Don Keith, who has appeared on the platform at Robinson rallies in London.
He posted a video in which he claimed to have spoken to Robinson, who said he had only been defending himself against someone who was behaving aggressively towards him.
Robinson, who has been silent since the event, reposted this clip, apparently endorsing it.
The grift begins
Then, Ezra Levant, pitched in.
Levant runs the Canadian-based online Rebel News but is a close supporter of Robinson and frequently spends time working with him in the UK.
At the weekend Levant turned up at the Epping anti-racist demonstration trying to provoke a response.
On Rebel News he echoed the claim that Robinson was only defending himself and that this would be clearly shown by the many CCTV cameras positioned in the station.
But, despite this, Tommy, inevitably, “Needs our help”.
Levant said he had already told Robinson’s lawyers that he would be “crowdfunding this latest legal battle”, and he provided a helpful link to the “Save Tommy” fund for Robinson’s gullible supporters to pay into.
He omitted to clarify what happened to the money donated to the last appeal for legal funds to fight Robinson’s contempt prosecution last year.
That raised a six-figure sum but remained largely surplus to requirements when Robinson pleaded guilty.
The grift has begun again.
