Activist Daniel Thomas admits criminal damage after slashing migrant dinghy in Channel

Activist Danny Tommo has admitted criminal damage after slashing a migrant dinghy with a knife in the English Channel.

The 37-year-old, whose real name is Daniel Thomas, changed his plea to the single charge when he appeared via video link from prison at Portsmouth Crown Court on Thursday.

A court previously heard that he 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.

Thomas, whose address was withheld by the court at a previous hearing, admitted using a knife on the dingy which had French personnel on board. He will be sentenced at the same court on 18 November.

Prosecutor Kevin Lucie told Basingstoke Magistrates' Court in September the defendant instructed his boat be steered towards the empty rigid inflatable boat (RIB) that was adrift and then armed himself with a knife 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 on a livestream 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."

After pleaded guilty to the charge of criminal damage at the magistrates hearing on Thursday, Thomas reiterated his plea of not guilty to failing to disclose the pin to his phone to police.