Nov. 12 (UPI) — British anti-immigration activist Daniel Thomas switched his plea Thursday to guilty to a charge of slashing a migrant dinghy in the middle of the English Channel while an emergency responder was on board.

Appearing at Portsmouth Crown Court via video link from prison, Thomas, 37, admitted a single count of criminal damage after pleading not guilty when he appeared before magistrates in Basingstoke on Sept. 25.

However, Thomas stuck with his not guilty plea to a charge of refusing to comply with a lawful request to provide police with the passcode to access his phone, in breach of their statutory investigatory powers.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday and remains in custody.

No one was hurt in the Sept. 22 incident in which he drew up in a boat and used a knife to cut open the side of an inflatable dinghy from which about 50 migrants had earlier been rescued as they tried to reach the south coast of England.

The migrants who had set sail from Normandy had already been transferred to Dover when the incident occurred but a French Coast Guard officer was still on the dinghy.

In September, a far-right group founded by Thomas called Patriot Platform organized flash anti-immigrant protests by men dressed in black and wearing balaclavas in Dover and Portsmouth.

The marches on Sept. 5 and Sept. 6 blocked roads and caused disruption but were peaceful after Thomas repeatedly impressed on his supporters that they should march in silence, not resort to violence or do anything to get themselves arrested.