Football hooligan jailed for attacking left-wing journalist Owen Jones

James Healy has been jailed for attacking Guardian journalist Owen Jones (Picture: PA)

A man has been jailed for attacking journalist Owen Jones outside a north London pub.

James Healy, 40, admitted affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm against the writer and political commentator and was sentenced to two years and eight months.

Jones, who is gay and has a prominent profile as a left-wing polemicist, suffered cuts, swelling to his back and head, and bruises down his body in the attack outside the Lexington pub in Islington, north London in August 2019.

The judge ruled that Healy carried out the attack because of Jones’s sexuality and political views – however, the defendant claimed that he had no idea who Jones was.

A search of Healy’s house found a number of items connected to far-right ideology, including a collection of pin badges linked to white supremacist groups. Healy, who is a supporter of Chelsea football club, also has several prior convictions for football-related violence.

The judge, Recorder Anne Studd QC, found the attack could only be motivated by Mr Jones’s self-described status. Jones told the court: ‘I’m an unapologetic socialist, I’m an anti-racist, I’m an anti-fascist and I’ve consistently used my profile to advocate left-wing causes.’

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Recorder Studd QC added: ‘I, therefore, propose to sentence Mr Healy on the basis that this was a wholly unprovoked attack on Mr Jones by reason of his widely published left-wing and LGBTQ beliefs by a man who has demonstrable right-wing sympathies.’

In response to Healy’s sentencing, Jones wrote a thread on Twitter stating his belief that prison would not fix the issue of far-right extremism that contributed to the attack, and was a product of certain media outlets.

James Healy was sentenced to two years and eight months for attacking Owen Jones (Picture: Central News)

Columnist Owen Jones wrote on Twitter that far-right extremism isn’t a problem that can be solved by prison (Picture: PA)

He wrote: ‘Far-right extremism does not appear out of nowhere.

‘It has been fuelled and radicalised by several mainstream media outlets, several mainstream commentators, and by several mainstream politicians.’

He claimed politicians and media outlets who portrayed the left ‘as dangerous terrorist sympathisers who hate their own country’ had ‘played with fire’.

‘As I wrote in my victim impact statement, prison is not a solution to far-right extremism.

The attack happened outside the Lexington pub in Islington, north London (Picture: Unknown)

‘He will go to a prison a violent far-right extremist, and probably leave prison a violent far-right extremist. There is no judicial solution to the far right: it is a political problem.’

Along with Healy, Charlie Ambrose, from Brighton, and Liam Tracey, from Camden were given suspended sentences of eight months each, suspended for two years after pleading guilty to affray over the incident.

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