ManwhotaughtdogNazi salute guilty of hate crime
A MAN who taught his girlfriend’s pet pug to give Nazi salutes and then posted the footage on YouTube said his prosecution was a “huge miscarriage of justice”.
Mark Meechan, 30, was yesterday found guilty of communicating a video which was “grossly offensive”. Meechan taught his girlfriend’s pug to react to the words “gas the Jews” and filmed it for his YouTube channel last year.
The pug, named Buddha, was also seen raising a paw to fascist chant “Sieg Heil” during the footage called “M8 Yur Dug’s a Nazi”.
Meechan, of Coatbridge, claimed the video was made to annoy girlfriend, Suzanne Kelly, 29, and denied any wrongdoing.
Meechan, who said he has lost eight jobs since posting the video, claimed he only intended it to be seen by seven of his friends, who follow his YouTube channel, Count Dankula. But he says the video was shared by someone on the social media platform, Reddit, which led to the surge in its popularity.
Sheriff Derek O’Carroll said the video, in which the phrase “gas the Jews” is repeated 23 times, was “threatening and grossly offensive”.
He found Meechan guilty of sending by “means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character”.
Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson attended court in support of Meechan. Robinson, real name Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, said the case was a “huge free speech issue.”
Sentence was deferred at Airdrie Sheriff Court. Outside court, Meechan said: “There has been a huge miscarriage of justice. I think it’s a very, very dark day in regards to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
“The thing that was most worrying is that one of the primary things in any action that is to be considered is things like context and intent, and today context and intent were completely disregarded.