Notorious Holocaust denier Vincent Reynouard arrested in Scots fishing village after posing as a tutor in Fife

A notorious Holocaust denier has been arrested in Scotland after two years on the run from police in France.

Vincent Reynouard was arrested in Fife, where he had been working with children under a false name as a private tutor according to reports, two years after fleeing France.

The French media reported that during his time in Scotland, Reynouard had been tutoring children in maths, physics and chemistry – with an international search leading police to Anstruther concluding a two-year hunt for the 53-year-old led by France’s Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes.

General Jean-Philippe Reiland of the OCLCH, the arm of the French gendarmerie that specialises in hate crime and war crimes, said: “Vincent Reynouard was able to be arrested thanks to a huge effort of international co-operation and, in particular, thanks to our British counterparts.

Vincent Reynouard was arrested in Anstruther Image, Campaign Against Antisemitism

“Despite the legal difficulties that may exist, the Office (OCLCH) will not let go of the ideologues who propagate hatred, wherever they are.”

Holocaust denial has been a criminal offence in France since 1990, and Reynouard has been convicted on numerous occasions. His conviction was in relation to a series of antisemitic posts on social media.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) who had been working with French Jewish groups to track Reynouard welcomed the news of his arrest, with a spokesman for the CAA telling the Scottish Daily Express: “Vincent Reynouard is a despicable Holocaust denier who has repeatedly been convicted by French courts.

“For him to have evaded justice, only to settle in the UK teaching children, is intolerable, which is why we worked with French Jewish organisations to secure his extradition so that he faces the consequences of his abhorrent incitement.

“We are pleased that, after months of investigations and along with Lord Austin, correspondence with police and the criminal justice authorities, he has now finally been caught. We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that he is extradited and serves his sentence in France.”

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In 2015, he was sentenced to two years in jail in Normandy for denying the Holocaust in a series of Facebook posts, with his most recent conviction coming in November of 2020 after he posted a Holocaust denial video on YouTube. However, he fled rather than serving his sentence.

A Police Scotland spokesperson told The Herald: “On Thursday, 10 November, 2022, a 53-year-old man was arrested by Police Scotland officers on behalf of the French Authorities.

“He was arrested at an address in the Anstruther area of Fife on a Trade and Co-operation Agreement warrant issued in France."

The Herald reports that Reynouard is due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today with French media reporting that the 53-year-old was imprisoned ahead of a possible extradition to France.