Sick car boot sale extremist 'went down a rabbit hole' and left an innocent family in tatters

A Jewish family were targeted with vile abuse by a right-wing extremist at a car boot sale.

Robert Taylor, from Bolton, approached a husband who was with his wife and their two children and repeatedly said ‘gas’. The abuse has made them question whether they still want to live in this country.

Taylor also distributed sickening anti-Semitic abuse on posters around his home town, and handed out extremist leaflets at the same car boot sale a year earlier. The 42-year-old has been jailed for four years after police discovered he had been spreading racist, homophobic and anti-Semetic material on Telegram and video sharing platforms over a near two year period.

Factory worker Taylor was described as a ‘highly intelligent man’ who had ‘gone down a rabbit hole'. Manchester Crown Court was told that he had initially been motivated by ‘intellectual curiosity’.

READ MORE: Mum, 27, showed Manchester Airport officers holiday photos - they immediately arrested her when they scrolled through

Prosecutors told how Taylor attended a car boot sale at Morley’s Hall in Astley, Wigan, on July 3, 2022. Also attending was a Jewish family, consisting of husband and wife with their two sons, aged nine and eight, wearing ‘traditional Jewish attire’.

The dad and his two sons were wearing skull caps. Taylor walked up behind the dad and began saying ‘gas several times’, prosecutor Martin Hackett said. Taylor then told him: “That is what I think of when I see you people, I think of gas.”

Taylor then moved about 15 feet away but continued making vile comments, and continued to say ‘gas’. The father chose not to respond and was trying not to cause his family ‘unnecessary distress’.

But Taylor continued to make comments, and nodded towards him as if he was ‘trying to goad him’ and get a ‘reaction’, prosecutors said. Taylor was also heard to say ‘heil Hitler’.

The defendant left and the dad later picked him out in a police identity parade. In a statement read in court, the dad said he was in ‘disbelief’ and ‘felt sick about the views expressed by the defendant’.

He said that Taylor’s behaviour had ‘forced him to accept that some people hate Jews’. He said that this is not ‘rational or explainable’ but that he believes it is the ‘reality’.

Mr Hackett said that the dad’s ordeal has had a ‘permanent impact on his life’. “He has previously always been visibly Jewish and wore his skill cap in public,” the statement on his behalf read. “However he now no longer does this.

“The actions of the defendant have made him question as to whether or not his family’s long term future lies within the UK.”

About a year earlier, Taylor had attended the same car boot sale and handed out anti-Semitic flyers. He told one recipient: “Learn about who your real enemies are.”

Taylor also went out into Farnworth and placed anti-Semitic posters on sites across the town ‘on at least 18 occasions’. Prosecutors referenced a Manchester Evening News article published in October 2021, which told how one of the posters, which featured a Nazi logo and ‘white power’, had been placed on a bus stop.

“Police in the area recorded reports from members of the public that were disturbed by the content of the particular posters,” Mr Hackett said. In August 2022, Taylor attended a protest in Bolton town centre against ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’. He was seen on camera launching anti-Semitic abuse, and also said that ‘Hitler is my hero’.

He was arrested at his home in Farnworth in February last year. Police carried out an extensive search of his electronic devices and discovered that he had been posting a catalogue of extremist material on Telegram for nearly two years.

He gave police the password to his phone, which was also said to have been a ‘number of significance to those with extreme right wing ideology’. Police also discovered that he had a document like to be useful for someone committing an act of terrorism, the ‘improvised munitions handbook’.

Defending, Richard Simons said that Taylor had previously been diagnosed with depression. He asked the judge to take into account Taylor’s ‘susceptibility’ and ‘vulnerability’. Mr Simons said that a pastor had attended court in support of Taylor, and others had told how he has ‘many positive attributes’.

Sentencing, Judge Alan Conrad KC told Taylor: “I take into account your lack of previous convictions, and that as an intelligent man you were initially driven by intellectual curiosity, although it is clear that this became subsumed in your desire to communicate your hatred of others, others who had done you no harm at all.”

Taylor, of Ullswater Drive, Farnworth, pleaded guilty to seven counts of inciting racial hatred, two counts of inciting hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, one count of publishing an image of an article of a proscribed organisation, namely National Action, one count of recklessly distributing a terrorist publication, one count of possessing a document containing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism and two counts of racially aggravated harassment.

After the hearing, Detective Superintendent Ben Cottam, Head of Investigations for Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said: "Robert Taylor’s actions over the time leading up to his arrest are nothing short of sickening. He subjected innocent people to vile anti-Semitic abuse, including a family with two young children who were enjoying a day out. Not content with abusing people in person, he attempted to spread his ignorant views wider by putting up posters, handing out leaflets and scrawling graffiti on walls in public places.

“Taylor would then brag about his exploits on social media and use it as a platform to share more anti-Semitic, racist, homophobic, and transphobic content. On one occasion he even shared a propaganda video for a proscribed organisation on social media and was later found to have sent a similar video to somebody directly.

“I’m grateful to the Community Security Trust for reporting Taylor’s online activity to police, and I hope today’s outcome sends a clear message that we are prepared to act decisively on reports such as these. Ignorance like that shown by Taylor has no place in society and, working alongside key partners such as the CST, we will continue to support communities targeted by abuse and ensure those responsible face the consequences of their actions."