Fined £800 for a hate crime,man who filmed dog giving Nazi salutes
But he says he’ll appeal... and refuses to pay up
A MAN convicted of a hate crime after filming a pet dog giving Nazi salutes and posting the footage online was yesterday fined £800.
Mark Meechan, 30, recorded his girlfriend’s pug, Buddha, responding to statements such as ‘Gas the Jews’ and ‘Sieg Heil’ by raising its paw.
The footage was posted on YouTube and police were called after complaints were made. Meechan was arrested for allegedly committing a hate crime by uploading the video in April 2016.
Meechan, of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, said he made the video to annoy girlfriend Suzanne Kelly, 29, but he was convicted under the Communications Act after a trial at Airdrie Sheriff Court last month.
Sheriff Derek O’Carroll found him guilty of posting a video that was grossly offensive as it was ‘anti-Semitic and racist’ and was aggravated by religious prejudice. The sheriff said he had asked lawyers to make legal submissions during the trial about the law of freedom of expression but added that was done only to ‘a very limited extent’.
He said that Meechan’s trial was concerned only with whether he had committed an offence under the Communications Act 2003 and that it was proved, saying: ‘My finding establishes only your
‘It was liable to cause gross offence’
guilt of this offence. It establishes nothing else and sets no precedent.’
The clip was viewed more than three million times and sparked a debate over free speech, with comedians Ricky Gervais and David Baddiel defending Meechan. Following the conviction, Gervais tweeted: ‘If you don’t believe in a person’s right to say things you might find grossly offensive, you don’t believe in freedom of speech.’
During sentencing, the sheriff told Meechan: ‘You deliberately chose the Holocaust as the theme of the video. You purposely used the command “Gas the Jews” as the centrepiece of what you called the entire joke, surrounding it with Nazi imagery and the Sieg Heil command so there could be no doubt what you were referring to.
‘I also found it proved the video contained anti-Semitic and racist material, in that it explicitly and exclusively referred to Jews, the Holocaust and the role of the Nazis in the death of six million Jews, in a grossly offensive manner. You knew or must have known that.
‘You knew or must have known of the risk the video, especially the repeated use of the phrase “Gas the Jews” together with Nazi imagery, was liable to cause gross offence to Jewish people.
‘The social work report on you is important. It is very favourable to you and, leaving aside the circumstances of this offence, shows you to have led a generally pro-social life thus far. It also shows that you have learned a certain amount from your experiences and that you are of low risk of reoffending.
‘In these circumstances, I rule out a custodial sentence. I now fine you £800.’
In the video, the dog is seen perking up when it hears the statements and appears to lift its paw to the Sieg Heil command in the video. It is also filmed watching a clip of Hitler at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
Following the sentencing yesterday, Gervais tweeted: ‘Can’t believe the pug got off scot-free.’
Speaking outside court, where he was cheered by around 100 supporters, Meechan said: ‘I’m not going to pay the fine because we are going to appeal. This sets a very dangerous precedent because
‘A dangerous precedent’
the court is deciding what people can say.’
Ross Brown, defending, said: ‘This court made Mark Meechan a criminal. Up until this point, he was a man who had no involve- ment with the law. He considered himself a liberal man. To be branded a criminal is a punishment.
‘The difficulty it seems is that he was someone who enjoyed shock humour, both giving and receiving it, and went about his life under the impression that he lived in a jurisdiction which gave him the right to fully express himself. This was not the perception Police Scotland had on receiving notice the video had been posted online.
‘Mark Meechan does not want to go to jail but is prepared to do so, so he remains true to his belief that freedom of expression is at the very core of our democracy.’
Prosecutors had earlier branded the video ‘an odious criminal act dressed up to look like a joke’.
The depute fiscal said: ‘He is a highly intelligent and articulate individual. The Crown contention is that the inclusion of the dog is an attempt to muddy the waters around him making, producing and posting the video.
‘He says he knows the context of the video but in a criminal court in Scotland he does not decide the context of anything. The court decides the context.’