Danny Tommo stays in prison for another week as judge delays bail decision
Alexa Lavoie reported from outside Portsmouth Crown Court after Danny pleaded guilty to criminal damage over an empty migrant dinghy. The judge then sent the father of four back to his cell until next Wednesday.
I have good news and maddening news about Danny Tommo.
The good news is that Danny won. This morning in Portsmouth Crown Court, the Crown dropped its serious charge against him, the one I was told could carry years in prison. In return, Danny pleaded guilty to the small one, criminal damage, for cutting a rubber dinghy that nobody was in.
The maddening news is that Danny is still in prison.
The judge says he needs more time to consider the case law. So he sent Danny back to his cell for another week, until next Wednesday.
Think about that. Danny has already spent seven weeks in a cell, for a charge that carries far less than that. The deal is done. The Crown agrees. And a father of four sits in prison for another seven days because a judge wants to do some more reading.
Our reporter, Alexa Lavoie, was recording outside the courthouse in Portsmouth. She flew to England last night, last minute, to cover the hearing this morning. Because this case is too important to leave to the regime media.
You remember how this started. Danny spent the summer on the beaches and the water of the south coast, trying to stop the small boats. In September, from a speedboat in the Channel, he leaned over and cut an empty migrant dinghy with a knife. The migrants had already been taken off. He did it on a livestream. I’m not going to pretend it was nothing.
A left-wing account posted the clip and said he needs arresting. Twenty-four hours later, the police obliged. They charged him with criminal damage. And they charged him with the serious one, recklessly endangering life.
Then the judge refused him bail. So a father of four, the only paycheque in his house, sat in a cell waiting for a trial in March.
Meanwhile, every one of the fifty people on that dinghy got a taxpayer-funded lawyer, a hotel room and three meals a day. The smugglers who sold them the boat got lawyers. Nobody arrested the French crew who escorted the boat into British waters.
The one man who tried to stop it got the cell.
Now, I know some of you might say, but Ezra, he pleaded guilty. Yes. To cutting an empty rubber boat. That is a world away from the charge they started with. Any lawyer in England will tell you that when the Crown drops its biggest charge, that is the prosecutor admitting it did not have the case it claimed to have.
A plea deal is not an acquittal. But a win is a win. And it’s a win you helped pay for.
Here’s the part the mainstream British press won’t tell you. This did not happen because the system is fair. It happened because, for once, the man in the dock had lawyers as good as the state’s. And the government was playing for keeps. It hired a top KC, a King’s Counsel, to prosecute Danny.
When Danny was arrested, he asked me for help. And I said yes.
He asked, through Tommy Robinson, because he saw what you and I have done for Tommy over the years. So I made Danny a promise that he would have the best lawyers in England, the same ones who defended Tommy. Not legal aid. Not a duty solicitor who meets him five minutes before the hearing. The best.
And so many of you went to SaveDanny.co.uk and made that promise real. Thank you.
But seven weeks of this does not come free. The police station. Two bail hearings. The preparation for a Crown Court trial. Today’s hearing. And now another hearing next Wednesday, because the judge wasn’t ready today.
I don’t get to choose how hard the state fights. With Danny, they went for the most serious charge they could find, kept him in a cell for seven weeks, and are keeping him there one more week even after the deal is done. That costs real money to beat.
I made a promise to crowdfund all of it, and I keep my promises. But I can’t keep this one alone.
If you’re glad the Crown backed down, if you’re as angry as I am that Danny is spending another week in a cell for no good reason, and if you think a man fighting for his country deserves the same lawyer every criminal migrant gets for free, please help me pay the bill at SaveDanny.co.uk.
Next Wednesday, God willing, Danny goes home to his kids. Let’s make sure his lawyers are paid when he does.
Ezra Levant
Rebel Commander
Ezra Levant is the founder and owner of Rebel News and the host of The Ezra Levant Show. He is the author of multiple best-selling books, including Ethical Oil, The Libranos, China Virus, and most recently, Trudeau's Secret Plan.