A Scottish YouTube comedian has been found guilty of a “grossly offensive hate crime” after he posted a video in 2016 of his girlfriend’s Pug dog appearing as if it was giving the Nazi ‘Sieg heil salute’.
Markus Meechan better known as his online moniker “Count Dankula” posted the video in 2016 of the pet pug appearing to give the straight arm salute as a prank on his girlfriend and was undoubtedly intended to be comedic but has since been dragged through the courts in the UK for alleged hate speech.
Meechan was found guilty of hate speech earlier this week and has had sentencing postponed until April, 23 rd .
The presiding Judge Sheriff Derek O’Carroll admitted that the video was obviously intended as a joke with no malice of forethought or any kind of harmful intentions.
However, Meechan may still yet face a custodial prison sentence for the joke.
The internet has reacted with fury and disbelief at the decision of the British courts to prosecute someone for making a joke and has drawn allusions between modern day Britain and George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel ‘1984’.