Watch live: Tommy Robinson appeals against 18-month jail sentence

Tommy Robinson will challenge his sentence for contempt of court at the Court of Appeal on Friday. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon, was sentenced to 18 months in jail last October after admitting to 10 breaches of a High Court order related to a libel suit he had lost. The order barried him from repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him for libel in 2021.

A judge said the 10 breaches were not "accidental, negligent or merely reckless" but had "amply crossed" the custodial threshold during sentencing last year. The appeal began at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Friday, with appearing via video link from in Milton Keynes.

Robinson's barrister Alisdair Williamson KC told the court that his client suffers from ADHD and "complex post-traumatic stress disorder", which, combined with his segregation in prison was having a "demonstrable effect on him".

The 42-year-old failed in an attempt to bring a legal claim against the government over his segregation in prison last month, claiming he had suffered an "evident decline in his mental health" during his time behind bars.

Robinson is currently set to be released on July 26, and his appeal has been opposed by the Solicitor General.

He was jailed after the Solicitor General issued two contempt claims against him last year, the first alleging that he had "knowingly" breached the High Court order on four occasions, including by having "published, caused, authorised or procured" a film called Silenced, which contained the libellous allegations, in May 2023.

The second claim was issued in August and concerned six further breaches, including playing the film at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London last summer.

Mr Justice Johnson said that "nobody is above the law" while handing down the sentence in October, and described Robinson's breaches of the injunction as "flagrant".

In written submissions for Friday's hearing, Aidan Eardley KC said Robinson was asking for the court's "indulgence" and suggested there was "no evidence that the conditions in which the apellant is being held are more severe than was anticipated".

The High Court order was issued after Robinson was successfully sued by Jamal Hijazi, a then-schoolboy who was assaulted in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in October 2018.

Robinson made false claims on social media about Mr Hijazi attacking girls in his school after a clip of the incident went viral, leading to the libel case in which the 42-year-old was ordered to pay £100,000 in damages and comply with the injunction barring him from repeating the allegations.