A woman who wrote and performed antisemitic songs mocking the Holocaust has been found guilty of posting “grossly offensive” material to YouTube.
Alison Chabloz, 54, was convicted of three charges relating to three of her songs at Westminster magistrates court on Friday. The district judge, John Zani, said he was satisfied the material was grossly offensive and that Chabloz intended to insult Jewish people.
The prosecutor Karen Robinson previously told the court: “Miss Chabloz’s songs are a million miles away from an attempt to provide an academic critique of the Holocaust.
“They’re not political songs. They are no more than a dressed-up attack on a group of people for no more than their adherence to a religion.”
The songs Chabloz were charged over included one titled (((survivors))) – using the white supremacist online convention of placing Jewish names within three brackets. The prosecution was initially brought privately by the charity Campaign Against Antisemitism, then taken over by the CPS.
The chair of the CAA, Gideon Falter, said: “Alison Chabloz has dedicated herself over the course of years to inciting others to hate Jews, principally by claiming that the Holocaust was a hoax perpetrated by Jews to defraud the world. She is now a convicted criminal. This verdict sends a strong message that in Britain Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy theories will not be tolerated.”
About 20 supporters of the musician groaned when the verdict was given, with shouts of “shame” from the public gallery.
Chabloz had uploaded the songs to YouTube, as well as performing them at a London Forum event in 2016. They included one song describing the Nazi death camp Auschwitz as “a theme park” and the gas chambers a “proven hoax”. The songs were in part set to traditional Jewish folk music.
Adrian Davies, defending, previously told Zani his ruling would be a landmark one, setting a precedent on the exercise of free speech. He had argued his client did not commit an offence, saying: “It is hard to know what right has been infringed by Miss Chabloz’s singing.”
The singer has defended her work as “satire”, saying many Jewish people found the songs funny. Lyrics included: “Did the Holocaust ever happen? Was it just a bunch of lies? Seems that some intend to pull the wool over our eyes.”
Chabloz, of Charlesworth, Derbyshire, was convicted of two counts of causing an offensive, indecent or menacing message to be sent over a public communications network. Sentencing is expected on Friday afternoon.
Earlier this year Mark Meechan, who goes by the online name Count Dankula, was fined £800 for posting to YouTube a video of a dog he had trained to give Nazi salutes when it heard certain phrases, including “gas the Jews” and “sieg heil”.