A Farnworth man who verbally abused Jewish people at public events and posted propaganda material online has been jailed
Robert Taylor aged 43 of Ullswater Drive was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court to four years in prison with a one year extended license period after pleading guilty to various charges relating to attempts to stir up racial hatred, including numerous offences under the Terrorism Act.
In May 2021, Taylor attended a car boot sale in Tyldesley and filmed himself approaching a Jewish man and verbally abusing him with antisemitic comments and handed out material containing similar information.
Over subsequent months, Taylor would stick antisemitic posters up in public places around Bolton.
In addition to the posters, he also graffitied existing posters with antisemitic rhetoric, stuck white supremacy stickers to street signs, and handed out racist flyers to members of the public.
Meanwhile Taylor regularly bragged about his activity on his social media accounts, in addition to posting reams of antisemitic, racist, homophobic, and transphobic content.
In July 2022, he returned to the same car boot sale he had visited the year before and targeted a Jewish family with verbal abuse and made various references to the Holocaust. The following month he attended a protest in Bolton and was seen hurling antisemitic insults at a member of the public.
Taylor’s online activity was initially identified by the Community Security Trust (CST) and reported to police, prompting an investigation which would reveal the full scale of his offending.
Following his arrest in February 2023, an examination of his electronic devices found that he was in possession of instructional information on the manufacture of explosives which may be useful to someone who commits or prepares acts of terrorism. He had also sent a propaganda video for a proscribed organisation to another person.
