UPDATE: Derbyshire Blogger Fails To Overturn Conviction Over Holocaust Songs

13 February 2019, 16:42

A Derbyshire blogger who "hates Jews" has failed to have her conviction for writing and performing Holocaust-mocking songs overturned by a crown court judge.

Alison Chabloz, 55, was found guilty of posting "grossly offensive" material relating to three self-penned songs at Westminster Magistrates' Court last May.

The Swiss-British dual national, who was handed a 20-week suspended prison sentence, had been fighting to have her conviction overturned at Southwark Crown Court.

In a judgment on Wednesday, Judge Christopher Hehir said Chabloz was "manifestly anti-Semitic", a " Holocaust denier" and "utterly obsessed with what she perceives to be the wrongdoing of Jews".

He said: "While each song has Holocaust denial at its heart, in no case do the lyrics restrict themselves to that.

"Rather they weave together Holocaust denial and hateful attacks on Jewish people generally by reference to well-known anti-Semitic tropes."

The judge said he was sure all three songs to which the three charges relate were grossly offensive, adding "we therefore affirm the appellant's convictions on all three charges".

Referencing one song, Judge Hehir said: "It blames Jews for their sufferings and brands them as thieves, liars and usurers.

"That is woven into sickening Holocaust-related references to shrunken heads, soaps, lampshades and smoke coming from crematorium chimneys.

"We are sure that she wrote and performed it because she hates Jews.

"We emphasise that anti-Semitism is not a crime, just as Holocaust denial is not. Nor can the fact that somebody is a Holocaust denier or an anti-Semite prove that anything she writes or sings is grossly offensive.

"However her anti-Semitism and her attitude to the Holocaust are in our judgment highly relevant to her state of mind so far as her musical compositions are concerned."

In addition to her suspended prison sentence, Chabloz was also banned from posting on social media for one year and ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.

Judge Hehir said he did not propose to alter her sentence and earlier said "it may well be that matters ventilated before this court are ventilated in a higher court".

Chabloz, who wore a black and white patterned suit, was joined in the courtroom by a small group of supporters.

At Westminster Magistrates' Court last year, Adrian Davies, defending, told the district judge that his ruling would be a landmark one, setting a precedent on the exercise of free speech.

Tunes uploaded to YouTube included one defining Nazi death camp Auschwitz as "a theme park" and the gas chambers a "proven hoax".

The singer has previously defended her work as "satire", saying many Jewish people find the songs funny.

Other lyrics, some partly set to traditional Jewish folk music, 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, Glossop, Derbyshire, was convicted of two counts of causing an offensive, indecent or menacing message to be sent over a public communications network after performing two songs at a London Forum event in 2016.

She was also convicted over another charge relating to a third song.