Woman convicted for ‘grossly offensive’ anti-Semitic songs
A BLOGGER who wrote and performed anti-Semitic songs which mocked the Holocaust has been found guilty of creating “grossly offensive” material.
Alison Chabloz, 54, was convicted of three charges relating to three self-penned songs at Westminster Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
District judge John Zani said he was satisfied the material was grossly offensive and that Swiss-British dual national Chabloz intended to insult Jewish people.
Sentencing was deferred until June 14 while probation reports are prepared, with the judge saying: “On the face of it this does pass the custody threshold.”
Chabloz uploaded tunes to YouTube including one defining Nazi death camp Auschwitz as “a theme park” and the gas chambers a “proven hoax”.
The songs were partly set to traditional Jewish folk music, with lyrics like: “Did the Holocaust ever happen? Was it just a bunch of lies?
“Seems that some intend to pull the wool over our eyes.”
About 20 supporters of the musician groaned when the guilty verdicts were given, with shouts of “shame” from the gallery. A scuffle ensued outside court as Chabloz left, with a man holding an Israeli flag involved in heated arguments. Adrian Davies, defending, previously told Judge Zani his ruling would be a landmark one, setting a precedent on the exercise of free speech.
He had argued his client did not commit an offence, saying: “It is hard to know what right has been infringed by Miss Chabloz’s singing.”
The singer has defended her work as “satire”, saying many Jewish people find the songs funny.
Chabloz, of Charlesworth, Glossop, Derbyshire, was convicted of two counts of causing an offensive, indecent or menacing message to be sent over a public communications network after performing two songs at a London Forum event in 2016.
She was also convicted over a fifth charge relating to a third song. Chabloz was bailed and told to appear before the court on June 14.