A journalist has made a complaint to the police after the far-right activist Tommy Robinson appeared outside his house during the night, repeatedly knocking on the door and windows and demanding to speak to him.
Robinson, who is an adviser to the Ukip leader, Gerard Batten, filmed himself outside the Luton home of Mike Stuchbery, who often writes about far-right issues.
In the footage, which was livestreamed online, Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, demanded to speak to Stuchbery and promised to return on other nights.
Robinson gave Stuchbery’s street address and threatened to give out the home addresses of other journalists, saying: “I’m going to make a documentary that exposes every single one of you, every single detail about every one of you. Where you live, where you work, everything about you is going to be exposed.”
In a series of tweets sent at the time, Stuchbery said he remained in the house and called the police. Robinson went away when officers attended the scene, but according to Stuchbery, he then returned at 5am, asking again to be let in.
Mike Stuchbery💀🍷 (@MikeStuchbery_)I've spent the last few months documenting how 'Tommy Robinson’ uses doorstepping to intimidate his critics, and how social media giants have enabled it.
March 5, 2019
So what does he do? Turns up at my house tonight. 1/ pic.twitter.com/NBB4B636eY
Tasnime Akunjee, a solicitor, said Stuchbery was left shaken following the incident.
“Mr Lennon turned up at Mike Stuchbery’s home address at roughly 11pm and again at 5am. On both occasions, he violently banged on Mr Stuchbery’s doors and windows, causing alarm and distress to the occupants,” he said.
In a later tweet, Stuchbery said he had made a statement to police and handed them video and audio footage of the incident.
In a piece for the Independent, Stuchbery described a “loud, frantic rapping” on his door accompanied by Robinson’s “unmistakable voice” asking to speak to him. This was followed by a number of alerts on Stuchbery’s social media accounts, which suggested Robinson was livestreaming his visit.
“The banging continued, urgent and piercing. At one stage, it sounded like he was kicking at my front door. While he claimed to be alone, banging came from other windows – I strongly suspect he had an accomplice,” he wrote.
“As I called the police, he wailed and raved, claiming that I had placed his family in danger, scared his children, conspired with others to try to bring him down. He said he’d be back every night, that he had a list of journalists he would ‘expose’ too.”
Stuchbery went on to describe his wife becoming distressed before the police arrived and convinced Robinson to leave. However, Robinson allegedly returned at 5am. The police attended a second time and remained with Stuchbery for the rest of the night.
Robinson said he had gone to Stuchbery’s house in retaliation for events on Sunday, when a legal letter was filed to his family’s home, giving him formal notice of an intended libel action by lawyers representing a Syrian refugee who was allegedly attacked at a school.
Robinson claimed one of the group livestreamed the action and, in doing so, revealed the house where his wife and children live, exposing them to risk.
“What do you think the response should be when people turn up, knocking at my door, terrifying my children and putting then in danger?” he said.
Robinson does not allege Stuchbery went to the house. However, he was among those who helped organise a crowdfunding appeal that raised £10,300 towards the costs of the legal action against the founder of the English Defence League.
Footage of the 15-year-old victim, who can be identified only as Jamal, being pushed to the ground at his Huddersfield school and having water poured on his face attracted widespread condemnation in December.
Hours after the video went viral, Robinson claimed on Facebook that Jamal had previously attacked three schoolgirls and a boy, something denied by the mother of one of the girls allegedly assaulted.
Facebook deleted several of Robinson’s videos for violating community standards after Jamal’s family announced their intention to sue in November.
On Tuesday, the page was removed as Robinson was permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram for repeatedly breaking policies on hate speech.
Facebook said he broke rules that outlaw public calls for violence against people based on protected characteristics, rules that ban supporting or appearing with organised hate groups, and policies that prevent people from using the site to bully others.
Robinson said by email that the delivery of the letter entailed “intimidating an innocent woman and her children by sending five men with a dog to the house while I wasn’t even in the country”. Stuchbery said on Twitter that the letter was handed to a police officer 50 metres from the house, which Robinson says is owned by his parents-in-law.
In November, Batten appointed Robinson as his official adviser on prisons and grooming gangs, seen as part of a wider move of Ukip towards the far right.
The Ukip leader said Robinson, who faces a possible retrial after successfully appealing against a jail term for contempt of court for livestreaming videos to Facebook from outside a grooming gang case, had “great knowledge” about the subjects.
• This article was amended on 7 March 2019 to make clear that Tommy Robinson says that the house to which a legal letter was delivered is owned by his parents-in-law.