Far-right activist Danny Tommo pleads guilty to criminal damage after slashing dinghy with knife in Channel
The 37-year-old appeared via video link for the hearing at Portsmouth Crown Court
Activist Danny Tommo has admitted to criminal damage after slashing a migrant dinghy with a knife in the English Channel.
The 37-year-old, whose real name is Daniel Thomas, changed his plea to the single charge when he appeared via video link from prison at Portsmouth Crown Court on Thursday.
A court previously heard Thomas had taken a boat into the English Channel and observed the migrant occupants of a dinghy being assisted by the RNLI, Border Force and the French Coastguard.
Prosecutor Kevin Lucie told Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court in September that the defendant instructed his boat to be steered towards the empty Rib that was adrift and then armed himself with a knife as rescue crews also approached the dinghy and a Frenchman boarded from a rescue vessel.
After slashing the boat with the knife, Thomas could be heard saying: “This is what needs to happen to everyone in these boats. Right, you’re on English territory, This is England, this is not France anymore.
“Get off the boat, you have time to get off the boat. This is not France. Take them back.”
At the hearing on Thursday, Thomas, whose address was withheld by the court at a previous hearing, reiterated his plea of not guilty to failing to disclose the Pin to his phone to police, under Section 53 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
The maximum sentence if convicted of criminal damage valued at more than £5,000 is 10 years’ imprisonment, according to the Sentencing Council.
But if the damage is valued lower than £5,000, the maximum sentence could be a fine and three months’ jail time.
At Thomas’s first appearance at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court, it was heard that the cost of the damage to the vessel was unknown to be above or below £5,000 because the boat had been taken back to France.
Thomas will also be given credit for his guilty plea.
Judge James Newton-Price KC set his sentencing date for November 18.
Thomas remains in custody ahead of the hearing.
