STV NewsA Glasgow man, who was falsely labelled an “invader” on social media by Tommy Robinson, has met his fundraising target to take legal action against 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, the 43-year-old began filming and was confronted by a protester.
Mr Beg 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.
In 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, following the story from STV News, the far-right activist deleted the post on X and issued an apology.
Social mediaHe 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”.
In response to the post on social media, Mr Beg launched a crowdjustice fundraiser to help cover the legal costs of taking action against Robinson.
The target has since been met, and law firm Bannatyne Kirkwood France & Co, a Glasgow-based firm which specialises in defamation cases, has been informed.
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.
Mr Beg told STV News: “We’ve hit the £50,000 target, honestly says more about the public than it does about me. This was never really about the money, it’s about whether a false claim should be allowed to travel further and faster than the truth, just because it has a bigger platform behind it.
“Every single person who gave, shared, or sent a message has said no to that. My legal team can now move forward properly, and I’m genuinely grateful to everyone who made that possible.”
Bannatyne Kirkwood France & Co has been contacted for comment.
‘I give zero f****’
Robinson has taken to his account and previously said in response to legal action: “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 was circulated online.
In 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.
‘I’m not sorry at all’
After taking down the initial post, 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?”
A 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.
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