The money raised at a Tommy Robinson rally in memory of a rioter who killed himself in prison appears never to have reached the bereaved family, reports suggest.
Peter Lynch, 61, killed himself in prison at HMP Moorland, Doncaster on October 19 2024.
The grandfather was serving a two year and eight month sentence for violent disorder after participating in the nationwide summer riots last August.
Lynch was jailed for shouting abuse at police officers outside a hotel known to be housing asylum seekers in Rotherham – branding the migrants inside ‘child killers’.
After Lynch’s death, far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson repeatedly invoked his name, turning him into a martyr figure for his cause – and calling on supporters to attend a mass rally in London in October 2024 in his honour.
At the protest buckets were past round for people to make donations for Lynch’s family and Robinson’s children, raising thousands of pounds.
However, Robinson’s media company Urban Scoop admitted in a YouTube live stream that none of the money found its way to Lynch’s bereaved wife and two children, The Sun reported.
Instead all of the donated money went to the children of Tommy Robinson, who has an estimated net worth of between £1-2million.
Peter Lynch, who took his own life in prison in October 2024 after being jailed for shouting abuse at police officers outside a hotel known to be housing asylum seekers in Rotherham last summer
Lynch (pictured in a baseball cap behind the police officer) stood outside the Rotherham Holiday Inn Express with a sign claiming several world organisations and UK institutions were ‘corrupt’
After Peter Lynch’s death, far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson, 42, repeatedly invoked his name, turning him into a martyr figure for his cause. Pictured: Robinson wearing a black ‘I Am Peter Lynch’ sweatshirt
Urban Scoop claim that Lynch’s family rejected the money, while a relative of Lynch told the tabloid that they could not comment on whether they had received any funds due to an ‘investigation’.
Lynch, from Wath-upon-Dearne, Rotherham, had been married for 36 years, had four adult children and three grandchildren.
He was working in the packing industry but had recently been made unemployed, his barrister told the court.
The hardened conspiracy theorist went to the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers on August 4, 2024, waving a placard which accused police officers, MPs, NASA, and the Environment Agency of being ‘corrupt’.
Lynch yelled ‘racist and provocative remarks’ at police officers during the unrest – which saw masked thugs smash the windows of the hotel and try to set it alight. He also branded the migrants in the hotel ‘child killers’, the court heard.
At his sentencing hearing in August 2024 the judge said Lynch was a ‘full participant’ in the riot and was filmed calling officers ‘scum’ after screaming: ‘You are protecting people who are killing our kids and raping them.’
Judge Jeremy Richardson KC told him: ‘You did not yourself attack any police officer, as far as can be detected, but what you did was encourage by your conduct others to behave violently and you were part of this mob.’
He was found dead in his cell on October 19, less than two months after being jailed.
Rioters at the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham on August 4, 2024, as thugs started fires and hurled objects at the windows in order to intimidate asylum seekers housed there during the nationwide riots that swept the country that summer
About 750 people gathered outside the Rotherham hotel. Judge Jeremy Richardson KC told Lynch in court: ‘You did not yourself attack any police officer, as far as can be detected, but what you did was encourage by your conduct others to behave violently and you were part of this mob.’
Robinson was unable to attend the October 2024 ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally after being arrested and remanded into custody beforehand, but him and his team invoked Peter Lynch’s name to get his supporters to take to the streets
A man holds a banner saying ‘I am Peter Lynch’ – apparently mimicking France’s ‘Je suis Charlie’ slogan over the killing of twelve people at the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in 2015
A man wears a ‘Justice for Peter Lynch’ t-shirt as thousands of far-right protesters march in Victoria, Central London, in solidarity with far-right figure Tommy Robinson in October 2024
A protester holds a sign featuring the name Peter Lynch, the 61-year-old who took his own life after being jailed for abusing police officers, on a Union Jack flag background
Tommy Robinson, 42, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, used Lynch’s death as talking point to rally his supporters to a 50,000-strong rally in London.
In a video posted the day after Lynch’s death, Robinson, wearing a black ‘I Am Peter Lynch’ sweatshirt, called him ‘a British, hard-working man, who was taken off the streets for legal, lawful protest.’
Accusing the Labour government of handing Lynch over to ‘Muslim gangs’ by jailing him, Robinson said: ‘Every single one of you upset about this man’s death, you have to get yourself to London. He’s a martyr for our country and a martyr for our cause.
‘If you’re his family and you’re watching this, we will pay for his funeral. We will pay for everything. We want to remember him. I’ve seen him wearing a Tommy Robinson T-shirt.’
Robinson was arrested and remanded before the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ protest but it nevertheless went ahead in his absence.
Far-right crowds decked out in Union Jacks and St George’s flags chanted ‘oh Tommy Tommy’ and ‘we want Starmer out’ as they blasted Keir Starmer and called for the release of their leader.
At the rally Robinson’s right-hand man Richard Inman told the packed crowd: ‘There’s another hero, and he’s not here today, and he won’t be at any more demonstrations.
‘One of us. Just an ordinary man. A grandfather, just like I am. A father, just like I am. And a patriot, just like I am.
A man wears the slogan ‘I am Peter Lynch’ as he joins the rally in the capital
A supporter of Britain’s notorious anti-Muslim agitator, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson displays a message for rioter Peter Lynch on a Union flag
Onlookers stand solemnly on the pavement at the funeral of 61-year-old Peter Lynch as a hearse carrying his body drives slowly past
‘Peter Lynch should be here today, and he’s not. Let’s have a massive cheer for Peter Lynch.
‘Before I forget, what we’re going to do is pass buckets round the audience, and we’re going to do a collection for Peter Lynch’s family.
‘And we’re going to do a collection for Tommy Robinson’s children.’
Photographs published in The Sun from behind the scenes at the rally show unsealed blue buckets containing thousands of pounds donated by sympathetic supporters.
After audience members probed where the money went on a YouTube live stream, Urban Scoop said: ‘Peter Lynch’s family didn’t want any monies collected at the rally.
‘Monies collected at the rally were for his family and Tommy’s kids. Peter’s family didn’t want it, so Tommy’s kids had it all.’
They added: ‘The money went to Tommy’s kids. No explanation required as everyone was told donations were going to them at the time.’
And in a third comment they said: ‘We can’t make Peter Lynch’s family take money they don’t want from us.’
Robinson is currently in the middle of a jail sentence for contempt of court after repeating false claims about a Syrian refugee.
Urban Scoop have been approached for comment.
