A sixteen-year-old youth was shown on video assaulting a fifteen-year-old Syrian refugee boy in a playground attack in Almondbury, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England.
On 22 July 2021 Tommy Robinson, activist and founder of English Defence League, was found to have libelled the Syrian boy and was ordered to pay £100,000 plus legal costs, which were understood to amount to a further £500,000.
[4] Subsequently, a separate video emerged of a girl, reportedly the younger sister of the Syrian refugee, also being assaulted in the school playground.
[6] Director of Advocacy at the Refugee Council, Lisa Doyle said: "The idea that someone escapes war and brutality, only to be met with violence here, is truly awful.
[7] The victim, originally from Homs, had spent nearly half his life as a refugee in Lebanon before being resettled by the British government in Huddersfield.
Jamal said bullying at Almondbury Community School had only increased since footage of the October attack went viral and had escalated into threats at his home.
[9] Sheerman reported the allegations to Jacqui Gedman, the leader of Kirklees Council and to Steve Walker, the Head of Children's Services.
[10] Almondbury's Conservative councillor, Bernard McGuin, revealed Jamal wrote to authorities in a desperate plea for help three weeks before the filmed attack.
[citation needed] The suspect's brother was jailed after a far-right Britain First rally erupted in violence and served a 32-month sentence for a public order offence.
Robinson, may have breached court orders preventing the naming of the alleged perpetrator in several videos on Facebook and Instagram, including one that has been viewed more than 150,000 times.
[19] The victim, identified as Jamal, told The Guardian that he and his sister did not wish to return to school, and a solicitor representing the family indicated they were considering moving away from the area.
[23] More than 100,000 people signed a petition calling on the Prime Minister to launch an inquiry into rising hate crime and racist bullying in British schools following the incident.
[29][30] Tommy Robinson used photos taken from a 2017 article about a teenage cancer patient from Surrey[13] to claim incorrectly that the Syrian refugee had previously attacked two schoolgirls.
[31] CNN International reported Robinson had deleted the videos and admitted to posting a fake photograph falsely purporting to show violence by a Muslim gang.
The lawyer responded by stating that Robinson "is being held to account for lying about a child" and "thinks it is a good idea to defame this 15-year-old boy and accuse him of being the author of his own bullying.
[37] Robinson, who represented himself during the four-day trial, said he was "gobsmacked" by the costs the boy's lawyers were claiming, which he said included £70,000 for taking witness statements.