STV NewsTommy Robinson has responded to a Glasgow dad raising funds to take legal action after he was falsely labelled an “invader” by the far-right activist.
Quroum Beg was left “fearing for his life” after those attending an anti-immigration protest in the Gorbals wrongly accused him of filming children.
The 43-year-old, who was born in Glasgow, was at the park near his home in the Gorbals with his children when a protest arrived.
After returning his children home, he then made his way back to the park to stage a counter-protest.
As the march passed by, Mr Beg began filming and was confronted by a protester.
He shouted towards the protesters: “I’m not afraid of you, keep on walking.”
After some of the demonstrators started to shout back at him, a police officer told the dad not to shout or “antagonise” the group.
Following further confrontations, the police guided Mr Beg away towards a playground where he sat on a swing.
Social mediaIn another clip, filmed by a protester, a woman is heard asking, “Why is he filming kids?” as he sat on the swing.
The dad responds that he is filming the protest. A chant of “get him out” is then heard as Mr Beg is led away by police.
The clip was then shared by Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, with the words: “Another invader hanging around a park filming children. Glasgow again too!”
However, after STV News reported the story, the far-right activist deleted the post on X and issued an apology.
He wrote: “I have to correct the record here. In this instance, I got it wrong, as did many others, so for that I apologise, and I have deleted that post.”
Robinson then urged followers to “be a little more careful about how they approach these situations from a factual point of view”.
‘I’m not sorry at all’
But, in a later post on X, Robinson retracted the apology and appeared to blame an admin.
The co-founder of the English Defence League, who previously lost a libel case after he incorrectly accused a 15-year-old refugee of being a bully, said: “I haven’t apologised to him because I didn’t even share the story, I didn’t even know about the story.
“One of my admins did.”
Robinson then goes on to describe the actions of Mr Beg as “pretty weird”.
“I’m not sorry at all because I didn’t say s***,” he added.
The post is accompanied by a screenshot of a WhatsApp group named “social media”.
A user called F Your Feelings tags Jack Dawkins, who, according to Hope Not Hate, is Robinson’s close aide Craig Fowler, and writes: “Bro we are gonna need to be more careful over stuff like this wording wise.”
In the group, a user believed to be Robinson replies: “I didn’t say he was filming kids, so why am I apologising?”
Social mediaA further post on the account labelled as “Admin Post” apologises for apologising.
It reads: “I am sorry I apologised for another admin’s post. I will never apologise for another admin’s post again.”
The initial post, which labelled Mr Beg as an “invader” and accused him of filming children, has not been deleted from the Tommy Robinson telegram channel, which has more than 70,000 followers.
‘Holding Tommy Robinson to account’
Mr Beg has announced his intention to “hold Tommy Robinson to account” under Scotland’s defamation law.
Under the Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021, it requires that any statement must be found to cause, or be likely to cause, serious harm to reputation in order to be actionable.
The dad has told STV News that he still feels the “impact” of the post on social media and that actions online need to be “treated with the seriousness they deserve.”
“The madness after the post has faded a little, but the impact of it is still here, I haven’t fully come to terms with what happened to me,” Mr Beg said.
“But I’ve made a decision to pursue this through our reliable courts, that’s because I need proper closure and make sure there’s no doubt I am none of the things that post painted me as.
“I have a legal team working to access our courts properly. I’m also in touch with mental health services for support. Online actions have real world consequences, and it’s time they were treated with the seriousness they deserve.”
A Crowd Justice page has been launched, which states that the legal action is “not about revenge”, but to establish “whether a lie should be allowed to travel further and faster than the truth”.
So far it has raised more than £35,000.
Robinson has taken to his account and said in response: “I give zero f**** , he will get as much money as Jamal & his lawyers got”
The Jamal he is referring to is a Syrian schoolboy, who was attacked in the playground by a fellow pupil and a video circulated online.
Social mediaIn the aftermath of the attack, Robinson shared an image of a teenage cancer patient, and falsely stated that Jamal had previously assaulted two schoolgirls.
A libel trial ensued which resulted in the far-right activist being ordered to pay Jamal £100,000 plus covering the legal costs.
An injunction was then granted to ensure that he did not repeat the claims regarding the schoolboy.
However, in a self-created film he repeated the false information, which resulted in him being jailed for 18 months.
His sentence was reduced by four months following an appeal.
In a second post about Mr Beg’s legal action, Robinson wrote “‘Glasgow dad'” followed by a number of laughing emojis.
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
