Far-right activist Daniel Thomas – known to his supporters as Danny Tommo – has pleaded not guilty to criminal damage after he allegedly slashed a boat in the English Channel with an emergency responder on board.

The 37-year-old, of no fixed address, appeared via videolink from Basingstoke Police Investigation Centre and was wearing a grey open-hooded sweatshirt with a dark T-shirt at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court on Friday after being charged on Thursday night.

He also denied failing to disclose the Pin to his phone to police, under Section 53 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

He was supported by fellow far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, who arrived at the court on Friday morning and sat in the public gallery.

The court heard a crew member was on the boat whilst it was heard leaking air.

Prosecutor Kevin Lucie, outlining the facts of the criminal damage charge, told the court that Thomas had taken a boat into the English Channel and observed the migrant occupants of a small boat being assisted by the RNLI, Border Force and the French Coastguard.

Mr Lucie said the defendant instructed that his boat be steered towards the empty 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.

He said that 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.”

Mr Lucie said that the cost of the damage to the vessel was unknown to be above or below £5,000 because the boat had been taken back to France.

The prosecutor said the incident happened to a background of “significant disorder” including the protest held in Gosport on Tuesday evening.

He said that the request by police for Thomas to provide the pin to his iPhone 17 pro max occurred after he livestreamed his arrest at a BP petrol station.

Thomas chose for his case on both charges to be tried by a jury at the crown court. A hearing will take place in Portsmouth Crown Court on Tuesday.

Simon Pentol KC, defending, said: “This defendant is not charged with an offence of political activism, whether you agree with it or not, that is not the issue.

“He has elected crown court trial over criminal damage simplicita and nothing more and for not acquiescing to a notice requiring him to provide a Pin number.”

He continued: “I invite this court to bear in mind it’s dealing with a 37-year-old man who lives with his long-standing partner and their four children, all aged between 18 and three, his partner is pregnant once again, four months.

“She is a full-time mother, he is the full time provider or bread-winner as they used to say.

“He is a professional roofer by trade, he is therefore having to look after his family who, through his political activism, have been under huge threat and due to publication of his mother’s home address, she has had to move home.”

Mr Pentol told the court that the issues for the criminal charge included the level of damage caused, whether the incident happened in international waters and out of the UK jurisdiction and whether there was “a lawful excuse”.

For the failure to provide his phone pin, Mr Pentol said the issues included whether the notice was provided by an “appropriate person” and Thomas had been given enough opportunity to respond.

Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram, the deputy chief magistrate, said: “I am going to send this case to the crown court at Portsmouth and the next hearing date will be 29th September.

“I am satisfied there is a real possibility of an immediate custodial sentence in this case.”

A dozen journalists were in the courtroom for the hearing, while a police officer stood in the public gallery.

On Thursday evening several hundred people, many wearing black, gathered outside a police investigation centre in Basingstoke believing that Thomas was inside.

Dozens of police officers could be seen monitoring the group outside the investigation centre as the protest continued for several hours.