EDL Stephen Lennon: ‘illegal immigrant’

The head of the EDL Stephen Lennon was jailed for 10 months after he used a false identity to enter the USA. As such he become an ‘Illegal immigrant in the USA’. Lennon pleaded guilty to using a friend's passport to board a Virgin Atlantic flight from London to New York. He was caught out after his fingerprints were taken by custom officials.

It is thought that Mr Lennon, who often warns of the ‘dangerous’ illegal immigrant was on his way to attending the International Freedom Defense Congress conference organized by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer’s Stop Islamization of Nations. Mr Lennon has previous criminal conviction which includes a 12 month prison sentence for assaulting an off-duty police officer in 2005.

He had been refused entry to the United States in the past, but this time he travelled under the name McMaster, who is one of his friends in the UK. After his fingerprints had been taken, the airport customs officials asked Mr Lennon to wait in-order to be interviewed for a second time. Instead, Mr Lennon left the airport and spent one-night in New York illegally, before returning to the airport the next day to fly back to the UK.

Mr Lennon flew back to the UK under his legitimate passport, which bore the name Paul Harris. Mr Lennon, who was arrested for the offense in October, is thought to use a variety of aliases. In the sentencing, Judge Alistair McCreath said “I am going to sentence you under the name of Stephen Lennon although I suspect that is not your true name, in the sense that it is not the name that appears on your passport”.

Judge McCreath added that “With full knowledge, you equipped yourself with a passport”. He also said “You knew perfectly well that you were not welcome in the United States”. “You knew that because you tried before and you had not got in, and you knew the reason for that”.

As Mr Lennon had broken the conditions of his bail, in flying to the United States and for the offense itself, he was imprisoned in October. Whilst in-prison, the English Defence League published on their website that Mr Lennon was a ‘Category A political prisoner’. The EDL claimed that he was imprisoned on ‘trump-up charges’ and that he was a ‘political hot potato’ which the authorities and prison governors do not want to deal with.

It is believed that prior to today’s sentence, Mr Lennon was being held in a category A prison, next to ‘real murders and terrorist’ according to the EDL. His conviction is another huge blow to the group, as article 2 of their mission statement, declares that they stand for the rule of law, and are very much against ‘illegal immigrants’.

Usman Butt