Far-right agitators and local racists, their rage stoked by Danny Tommo, have returned to the streets of the Surrey commuter town of Epsom, attacking police and properties on the basis of lies and disinformation about an alleged rape.
Mobs have now attacked a local hotel and a house where migrants were thought to be living. Windows have been broken, resdients threatened, and the police have been attacked as they made arrests.
The trouble began on 11 April, when Surrey Police issued an appeal for witnesses after a woman said she had been raped by several men outside Epsom Methodist Church. She was said to have been followed and assaulted after leaving the Labyrinth nightclub in the early hours of that morning.
Baseless claims
Elements of the far right, without a shred of evidence, immediately launched an online campaign claiming that she had been attacked by a group of migrants.
Within days, their baseless claims had hardened into racist certainty: the attackers were migrants, the police were covering it up, and direct action was needed.
The protest was promoted online by Danny Tommo, a close associate of Tommy Robinson.
As Searchlight reported last week, Tommo (real name Daniel Thomas, a former kidnapper and drug dealer) appeared in the town centre on Wednesday with a microphone, live streaming, confronting riot police and telling assembled protesters that police “know exactly who it is.” He knew no such thing.
No evidence
Surrey Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Grahame subsequently confirmed that officers had reviewed extensive CCTV, interviewed potential witnesses, conducted forensic investigations and carried out house-to-house enquiries, and had “not found any evidence of the offence as reported.”
She was equally unequivocal on the question Tommo had spent the week stoking: “There is no evidence that asylum seekers or immigrants were involved.”
That categorical rebuttal did nothing to deter Monday’s mob.
Flyers were posted online claiming that the police are involved in a cover-up and calling a demonstration yesterday which led to attacks on a hotel and a house in multiple occupation (HMO).
Footage circulating on social media shows a crowd smashing windows of the HMO, acting on the false belief that it was housing asylum seekers, before police moved in to make arrests.
Wholly inaccurate
The Travelodge hotel on Station Approach was also targeted, with Surrey Police surrounding it after protesters claimed it housed asylum-seekers, claims the force described as “wholly inaccurate information.”
Police equipped with riot shields had objects thrown at them. Four people were arrested on suspicion of offences including criminal damage and assaulting an emergency worker.
Intimidation
Local MP Helen Maguire did not mince her words. “Throwing projectiles at police officers is a criminal act,” she said.
“Harassing residents and businesses based on disinformation is not patriotism, it is intimidation, and it will not be tolerated.
“For the sake of clarity: there are no asylum hotels in this constituency. The information being shared online that has drawn this crowd to our community is false.”
Surrey Police echoed the message, urging the public to stay away and warning that footage from Monday evening would be reviewed to identify further offenders.
The pattern here is now familiar. Tommo’s primary business model is monetised outrage, and a leaked telephone recording, reported recently by Searchlight, reveals he is desperate for cash.
Hell bent on riots
He is happy to stir up any amount of trouble, utterly regardless of the consequences, if it provides live stream content which he can monetise.
Even since the Southport murders in 2024 Tommo has been hell bent on stirring up riots. Then, he went online declaring that:
“Every city has to go up.
“Get prepared. Be ready. We have to.
“It has to go off in different cities.
“We have to show them we’ve had enough.
“I’m ready to go. I know that a lot of you are. I’m speaking to other people at the moment.
“We’re ready to go. We are, literally, ready to go.
“Just get ready.”
It’s time he was taken off the streets.
