A 30-year-old man, Mark Meechan, has been convicted of hate crime by Airdrie Sheriff Court in Scotland for teaching a pet dog how to give Nazi salutes.

The convict recorded and uploaded a video of his girlfriend’s pug, Buddha, giving Nazi salutes to YouTube in April 2016. The video showed the pet dog responding to statements such as ‘gas the Jews’ and ‘Sieg Heil’ by raising its paw.

However, after several complaints about the content which had already generated over three million views on YouTube, police were invited and he was arrested for allegedly committing a hate crime.

Meechan of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, was then docked and tried at Airdrie Sheriff Court, but he denied any wrongdoing.  He said he made the video to annoy his 29-year-old girlfriend, Suzanne Kelly.

But, Sheriff Derek O’Carroll found Meechan guilty of a charge under the Communications Act that he uploaded a grossly offensive video on social media and YouTube, saying it was ‘anti-semitic and racist in nature’ and was aggravated by religious prejudice.

Sheriff O’Carroll said he didn’t believe Meechan made the video only to annoy his girlfriend and ruled it was anti-Semitic. He said he believes that Meechan deliberately left the video on YouTube to drive traffic to other materials he had there.

He said,

”In my view it is a reasonable conclusion that the video is grossly offensive. The description of the video as humourous is no magic wand. This court has taken the freedom of expression into consideration. But the right to freedom of expression also comes with responsibility. The accused is quite obviously an intelligent and articulate man. The accused knew that the material was offensive and knew why it was offensive. Despite that the accused made a video containing anti-Semitic content and he would have known it was grossly offensive to many Jewish people.’’

Defense counsel, Ross Brown, told the court that his client’s purpose was to annoy his girlfriend, who also testified that it was an example of his sense of humour.

Brown said,

“I can see that the video may not be to everyone’s taste. Others may be able to see the comedic or satirical element to it. His girlfriend testified that Mr Meechan had never made known to her any anti-Semitic views whatsoever.  The accused possesses both tolerant and liberal views. His girlfriend is in no doubt it was an example of his sense of humour.’’

Brown also informed the court that it was wrong to focus on the phrase ‘gas the Jews’ when it had been taken out of context of the whole video, adding that even famous Jewish comedian, David Baddiel supported Meechan and asked for him to be freed.

Reacting to his conviction, Meechan, who was supported at court by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, said he will appeal.

He said,

“I think it is a very dark day in regards to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. For any comedians in Britain, be very, very worried about making jokes in future because the context and intent behind them apparently don’t matter anymore.”

Meechan will be sentenced next month.