A notorious far-right extremist who made sick jokes about Jewish people being exterminated during the “Holohoax” faces a jail term after being convicted of trying to trick girls into a bizarre sex experiment.
Simon Sheppard and his extremist racist views have caused serious upset and controversy in the past.
Sheppard, who has recently been residing in Bridlington, turned his attention to sexual exploitation of vulnerable children, Hull Live writes.
The 65-year-old went on trial at Hull Crown Court accused of two offences involving attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child on August 12.
He gave four teenagers a card inviting them to take part in a “sexperiment” which would have involved having sex with them.
They did not accept Sheppard’s invitations, however, and reported the incidents to their parents, who alerted the police.
He was convicted by a jury after a trial and was remanded in custody for pre-sentence reports.
Sheppard was warned that he faces a prison sentence for the offences.
He had been jailed for nine months at York Crown Court in June 2018 after being convicted by a jury of using racially aggravated words to a Sky engineer.
He had “barracked” the man while he was working on a satellite dish at a neighbour’s flat in June 2017.
Sheppard, then living in Selby, was also given a five-year criminal behaviour order.
He had told the court that he was not happy that a black man had been given a flat in his block of flats and denied intending the neighbour to overhear racist abuse.
It had been claimed that Sheppard regularly used a racist word when he saw the neighbour.
In 2008, Sheppard claimed asylum in the United States under freedom of speech laws after failing to turn up at court towards the end of a seven-week trial at Leeds Crown Court, where he was accused of publishing racially aggravated material.
He was convicted in his absence of a series of charges relating to possessing, publishing and distributing racially inflammatory material.
He failed in his asylum application and was deported back to this country after being detained at a Los Angeles airport.
He was later jailed for four years and 10 months but the sentence was eventually cut by a year after an appeal.
The material was anti-Semitic and racist, with what police described as “despicable references to the Holocaust”.
Police said at the time: “You have to remember that there are people in our community who lived through the Holocaust.
“They don’t deserve to have their experiences treated in this way.”
Sheppard claimed that he was not breaking the law because he used an internet server that was based in the United States but a judge ruled that the prosecution could go ahead.
Sheppard claimed that he was being persecuted because of his right-wing views.
The police investigation began after a complaint in 2004 about a leaflet called Tales of the Holohoax that had been pushed through the door of a synagogue in Blackpool.
In 2000, a trial at Hull Crown Court was told that Sheppard, then aged 43 and living in Westbourne Avenue, west Hull, had claimed that there was “nothing wrong with being racist”.
He had been found with election leaflets parodying the deaths of the Jews in the Holocaust.
The police were called in after complaints from members of the public.
He declined to offer pleas and not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf.
Sheppard and a youth delivered the two-sided leaflets to homes in the Avenues area of Hull ahead of the European elections.
There was reference to the “country being spoiled by millions of immigrants from the Third World” and he suggested that whites, blacks, Asians and Jews should be segregated by “selective breeding”.
In 2000, a trial at Hull Crown Court was told that Sheppard, then aged 43 and living in Westbourne Avenue, west Hull, had claimed that there was “nothing wrong with being racist”.
He had been found with election leaflets parodying the deaths of the Jews in the Holocaust.
The police were called in after complaints from members of the public.
He declined to offer pleas and not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf.
Sheppard and a youth delivered the two-sided leaflets to homes in the Avenues area of Hull ahead of the European elections.
There was reference to the “country being spoiled by millions of immigrants from the Third World” and he suggested that whites, blacks, Asians and Jews should be segregated by “selective breeding”.
Sheppard had been found with 153 leaflets. The youth had another 248.
The prosecution told the court: “He told the police there was nothing wrong with being racist and he was campaigning on behalf of the British National Party.”
He was convicted by the jury of publishing and possessing threatening, abusive or insulting leaflets.
Sheppard may have turned his attention most recently to sexual matters involving children, rather than racist matters, but he still seems odds-on to get another prison sentence when he returns to court to be dealt with for those offences.
Far-Right Criminals 