Man fined £800 for posting video online of pug giving Nazi salutes

● In sentencing, sheriff says law places limits on freedom of speech

A man who filmed a pet dog giving Nazi salutes before posting the footage online has been fined £800.

Mark Meechan, 30, recorded his partner’s pug responding to statements such as “gas the Jews” and “sieg heil” by raising its paw, and posted the footage on Youtube in April 2016.

He was found guilty of posting material that was “grossly offensive” and “anti-semitic and racist in nature” in breach of the Communications Act, in an offence aggravated by religious prejudice, following a trial at Airdrie Sheriff Court.

Meechan had claimed he made the video as a joke to annoy his partner, and raised issues about freedom of speech during the trial.

Speaking outside the court after sentencing yesterday, he said that the decision sets a dangerous precedent and that he is going to appeal.

Dozens of supporters of Meechan, including former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, were at Airdrie Sheriff Court for the court hearing yesterday.

Sentencing Meechan, Sheriff Derek O’carroll said the video was grossly offensive, and that his girlfriend did not even subscribe to the video channel he posted it on.

He said: “The centrepiece of your video consists of you repeating the phrase ‘gas the Jews’ over and over again as a command to a dog, which then reacts.

“You recite ‘gas the Jews’ in a variety of dramatic ways. ‘Gas the Jews’ in one form or another

0 Mark Meechan waves as he leaves Airdrie Sheriff Court after being fined for offensive video posts is repeated by you 23 times within a few minutes.

“You use the command ‘sieg heil’, having trained the dog to raise its paw in response, and the video shows a clip of a Nuremberg rally and a flashing image of Hitler with strident music.

“You say the video was only intended as a joke to upset your girlfriend, whose dog you used, and nothing more.

“On the whole evidence, including your own, applying the law as made by Parliament and interpreted by the most senior courts in this land, I found it proved that the video you posted, using a public communications network, was grossly offensive and contained menacing, anti-semitic and racist material.

“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 the ‘gas the Jews’ centrepiece withnaziimageryandthe‘sieg heil’ command so there could be no doubt what historical events you were referring to.”

Sheriff O’carroll added that while the right to freedom of expression is important, “in all modern democratic countries the law necessarily places some limits on that right”.

Meechan’s defence agent, Ross Brown, said that his client was a “tolerant and liberal” man “who enjoyed shock humour”.