A MAN who taught his girlfriend's pet pug to give Nazi salutes and then posted the footage on Youtube has been found guilty of posting an offensive message.

Mark Meechan, 30, was found him guilty of communicating a video which was "grossly offensive".

Meechan taught his girlfriend's pug to react to the words "gas the Jews" and filmed it for his YouTube channel last year.

The pug, named Buddha, was also seen raising a paw to fascist chant "Sieg Heil" during the footage called "M8 Yur Dug's a Nazi".

The stunt provoked outrage after being posted on YouTube where it has more than three million views.

Meechan was arrested by police for allegedly committing a hate crime by sharing the footage in April 2016.

But Meechan, of Coatbridge, claimed the video was made to annoy girlfriend, Suzanne Kelly, 29, and denied any wrongdoing.

Meechan, who said he has lost eight jobs since posting the video, claimed he only intended it to be seen by seven of his friends, who follow his YouTube channel, Count Dankula.

But he says the video was shared, by someone, on the social media platform, Reddit, which led to the surge in its popularity.

Meechan said it was "extraordinary bad luck" the video became so popular.

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Meechan, who claims the video was "for the purposes of comedy", previously said he had received support for the joke from famous Jewish comedian David Baddiel.

But Sheriff Derek O'Carroll said the video, in which the phrase "gas the Jews" is repeated 23 times, was "threatening and grossly offensive."

He found Meechan guilty of sending by "means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character".

Sheriff O'Carroll said: "He said he chose 'gas the jews' as it was the most offensive phrase associated with the Nazi's that he could think of.

"It was the centrepiece of the joke. He said it was so extreme that it added to the comedy."

Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson attended court in support of Meechan.

Robinson, real name Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, said the case was a "huge free speech issue."

Sentence was deferred at Airdrie Sheriff Court.

Outside court, Meechan said: "There has been a huge miscarriage of justice.

"I think it's a very, very dark day in regards to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

"The thing that was most worrying is that one of the primary things in any action that is to be considered is things like context and intent, and today context and intent were completely disregarded.

"For the system to actually disregard such things as that means that your actions no longer matter, they decide what your context and intent is.

"For any comedians in Britain, I would be very worried about making jokes in future because your context and intent behind them apparently don't matter anymore

"I made the video to annoy my girlfriend and that is the reality."

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