EDL founder and anti-Islam activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - also known as Tommy Robinson - has lost a High Court case brought by a Syrian schoolboy.

Yaxley-Lennon was sued by Jamal Hijazi, who was assaulted in the playground at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield in October 2018.

Shortly after the video of the incident went viral, Yaxley-Lennon claimed in two Facebook videos that Jamal was “not innocent and he violently attacks young English girls in his school”.

In the clips viewed by nearly one million people, the 38-year-old also claimed Jamal “beat a girl black and blue” and “threatened to stab” another boy at his school, allegations the teenager denies.

At a four-day trial in April, Jamal’s lawyers said that Yaxley-Lennon’s comments had “a devastating effect” on the schoolboy and his family who had come to the UK as refugees from Homs, Syria.

Yaxley-Lennon, who represented himself, argued his comments were substantially true, claiming to have “uncovered dozens of accounts of aggressive, abusive and deceitful behaviour” by Jamal.

In a judgment delivered on Thursday, Mr Justice Nicklin ruled in Jamal’s favour and granted him £100,000 in damages.

Catrin Evans QC, for Jamal, previously said that Yaxley-Lennon's comments led to the teenager “facing death threats and extremist agitation” and that he should receive damages of between £150,000 and £190,000.

During the trial, Ms Evans described Yaxley-Lennon as “a well-known extreme-right advocate” with an “anti-Muslim agenda” who used social media to spread his views.

She added that Yaxley-Lennon's videos “turned Jamal into the aggressor and the bully into a righteous white knight”.

However, Yaxley-Lennon maintained he was an independent journalist during the trial, telling the court: “The media simply had zero interest in the other side of this story, the uncomfortable truth.”

A hearing will follow Thursday’s judgment to consider the consequences of the ruling.