The dog seen raising its paw after Mark Meechan, AKA Count Dankula, called Sieg Heil in the video. Meechan has now been fined after being convicted of a hate crime. YouTube/Mark Meechan
Count Dankula Sentence: Youtuber Avoids Jail After Conviction for Teaching Pet Pug Nazi Salute. A Scottish YouTuber, convicted of a hate crime after uploading a video of him teaching his girlfriend's dog to give a Nazi salute, has avoided a prison sentence.
The dog seen raising its paw after Mark Meechan, AKA Count Dankula, called Sieg Heil in the video. Meechan has now been fined after being convicted of a hate crime.
But ended up causing outrage online, amplified by the bloodthirsty media. In 2016, Dankula was accused of posting an offensive, under British law, message on an internet platform. “Offensive” is a subjective category and the law itself is suspect; nevertheless, he was found guilty in 2018 and ordered to pay a fine of £800.
Meechan's lawyer Dorothy Bain subsequently petitioned the High Court of Justiciary to hear the case. Senior judge Lord Carloway opined that the High Court did not have the power to grant an appeal denied by the Sheriff Court. In March 2019, the ÂŁ800 was seized from Meechan's bank account under an arrestment order.
The arrest generated controversy and discussions about free speech. In April 2018, Meechan was fined ÂŁ800 . Meechan stated he would not pay the fine, and instead donated ÂŁ800 to the Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity. In March 2019, the money was seized from his bank account by an arrestment order.
The letter stated that the appeal was "not arguable" due to the nature of the "deeply unpleasant offence".
In March 2019, the ÂŁ800 was seized from Meechan's bank account under an arrestment order. On 17 June 2020, Meechan announced that his additional appeal to the Supreme Court was also rejected. Meechan stated his intention to bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
On 19 March 2018, Meechan was convicted of breaching the act by Sheriff Derek O'Carroll at Airdrie Sheriff Court. The court ruled that Meechan's claim that the video was a joke intended for his girlfriend "lacked credibility" as Meechan's girlfriend did not subscribe to the YouTube channel to which the video was posted.
BBC Scotland planned to feature Meechan in a 2019 debate program, The Collective, and had him film two episodes. However, the network announced that these episodes would not be aired after a backlash over the announcement. BBC Three produced a documentary on Meechan's case which aired during the summer.
In the clip, Meechan, better known as Count Dankula, told viewers how he wanted to annoy his girlfriend as a joke so decided to turn her pet pug, Buddha, into the "least cute thing I could think of.".
Meechan's conviction was welcomed by the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, who also claimed they received hundreds of anti-Semitic messages online after their director, Ephraim Borowski, was called to give evidence at the trial.
The dog seen raising its paw after Mark Meechan, AKA Count Dankula, called Sieg Heil in the video. Meechan has now been fined after being convicted of a hate crime. YouTube/Mark Meechan.
Mark Meechan, who blogs under the name Count Dankula, was previously found guilty under the Communications Act over the video. Viewed more than three million times on YouTube, it showed his girlfriend’s pug raising its paw apparently in response to statements including “sieg heil” and calls to murder Jewish people.
Man who taught girlfriend's pet pug dog to perform Nazi salutes leaves court after being fined ÂŁ800. A YouTuber who trained his girlfriend's dog to perform Nazi salutes has been fined ÂŁ800 for being grossly offensive. Mark Meechan, who blogs under the name Count Dankula, was previously found guilty under the Communications Act over the video.