Right-wing activist Danny Tommo pleads guilty to slashing migrant dinghy in Channel

Hard-right activist Danny Tommo has pleaded guilty to slashing a migrant boat with a knife in the Channel.Tommo – real name Daniel Thomas, 37 – pleaded guilty at Portsmouth Crown Court to causing criminal damage.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 the defendant instructed his boat be steered towards the empty rigid inflatable boat that was adrift.Read MoreHe then armed himself with a knife, the court heard, 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 denial of a separate charge of failing to disclose the Pin to his phone to police, under Section 53 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.