The rapidly spreading control of speech and thought in the UK, manifesting itself at times as extreme priggish censorship, was dramatically underlined Friday when a Scottish court jailed a man for writing a sexual Christmas card to his next-door-neighbour.
Falkirk, Scotland, resident Allan West spent Christmas day alone and got drunk, according to a court report by British state broadcaster the BBC.
Desiring company, the 64-year-old wrote and hand-delivered a Christmas card through his female neighbour’s postbox, inviting her to join him for the afternoon. West claimed he sent it, the second card he gave to the woman, “just to be neighbourly”.
Although the precise content and wording of the card was not reported, the BBC stated it was “obscene” and when asked whether it was an “appropriate” thing to write to a neighbour on Christmas day, West admitted it was not.
West’s defence counsel told the court: “He was alone on Christmas Day and he was hoping for some company.
“Inexplicably, through alcohol, he has sent something which caused her to call the police.”
West admitted sending a sexual written communication without the recipient’s consent at the Falkirk Sheriff’s court, a crime so serious he was sentenced to two months in prison.
The ruling follows another 2018 Scottish Sheriff’s Court case which generated intense media attention for its perceived disproportionality. In March, Scottish Youtube comedian Markus Meechan — also known as Count Dankula — was found guilty of a hate crime for what he called “shitposting” for comedic effect.
In a 2016 Youtube video, the comedian explained his girlfriend thought her small dog was nice no matter how badly behaved it was, so to test her tolerance he taught it to perform a straight-armed Nazi salute in return for dog treats. For this, Meechan was found guilty of being “Grossly Offensive” under the Communications Act of 2003.
Speaking outside court before the ruling, Meechan said the investigation had totally failed to consider the context of the video as comedic rather than political, and that the long trial had put his life on hold for two years.
He said: “What they should have realised from the start is realise how ridiculous this entire thing is, okay he’s just a shitposter, he’s an edgy comedian’, there are famous comedians who have done much worse than me [like Frankie Boyle] and you don’t see them getting arrested.”
“The thing which makes it so ridiculous is that this is over a joke, I’m a Youtuber, I made the joke video for a laugh… but then people wanted to misrepresent that.”
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