An anti-migrant YouTuber who claimed he was campaigning to ‘protect women and children’ is a convicted paedophile, it has been reported.
Anthony Styles gained thousands of followers by livestreaming far-right rallies and gatherings outside asylum hotels.
His channel ‘AJ Audits’, which has since been deactivated or deleted, showed him demonstrating alongside other men who claimed asylum seekers are sex predators who target children.
The most recent videos showed rallies organised after the arrest of an Ethiopian asylum hotel resident who was later convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Epping, Essex.
A number of children were brought by their parents to the rallies, which have seen weeks of disorder in the town.
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Styles, from Hemel Hempstead, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ jail in 2017 for indecently assaulting a girl under 14 in 1993, The Times reported.
During his trial, the court heard he abused the girl after she sat on his knee in a flat in Blackpool.
In 2012, he was also convicted of assaulting a 17-year-old girl and possessing 307 indecent images of children.
He was handed a three-year community service order as a result.
Styles’ most recent conviction reportedly resulted in him being put on the sex offenders register for life and handed an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
It’s not clear what restrictions the order imposed, but they typically forbid or limit contact with children and the use of the internet and certain devices.
Styles was part of a number of social media groups where rallies were organised, including one named For The Children.
It’s understood he has been kicked out after information about his convictions spread online.
Styles went to lengths to conceal his identity, never revealing his real name online.
Activists from the group Stand Up to Racism eventually saw his real name on a fake ‘AJ Audits’ press pass he made for himself and wore at a protest, allowing them to find records of his convictions.
Lewis Nielsen, a Stand Up to Racism told The Times: ‘These revelations show the far right have never cared about women’s rights, they’ve been harbouring convicted offenders in their midst.
‘The hypocrisy is off the charts. This man has claimed to be protecting women and girls while hiding his own convictions.’
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