Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
“Nazi-Pug” man raises over £150k for appeal
Refusing punishment
The Coatbridge man fined £800 after he filmed a pet dog giving Nazi salutes has raised more than £150,000 to appeal his conviction.
Mark Meechan posted a video online of his girlfriend’s pug, Buddha, raising its paw in response to him saying “Sieg Heil”.
The 30-year-old, who posts on YouTube as Count Dankula, was hit in the pocket last week after being found guilty at Airdrie Sheriff Court of a hate crime.
However, in his latest video, Meechan re- emphasised his intention to refuse to pay the £800 fine and revealed he had set up an online GoFundMe page to pay for his appeal.
The funding passed £100,000 in less than 24 hours and was sitting at £157,000 as the Advertiser went to press.
Meechan said: “I am no criminal, I have committed no crime, I’ve done nothing wrong and, therefore, I should not be punished.
“My form of protest is to refuse any punishment that the judge gives me.
“I owe the court £800. I’m not f***ing paying it.”
Meechan said he was appealing because his conviction “will be used as an example to convict other people over the things they say and the jokes they make”.
He added: “Me having a criminal record and paying an £800 fine is an irrelevance. What matters is the precedent this case sets.
“Whenever anyone says something that might be unsavoury, the court gets to decide the context and can punish you for it. That’s Stalinist.
“We need to get the best that money can buy so we can go to the High Court and nuke this precedent; this precedent needs to go.”
Meechan’s video also showed Buddha watching a speech by Hitler and reacting to the statement “gas the Jews”.