Woman who wrote antisemitic songs calling Holocaust gas chambers 'a proven hoax' spared jail
Judge bans Alison Chabloz from posting anything on social media for a year
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
A woman who wrote antisemitic songs mocking the Holocaust and calling gas chambers a “proven hoax” has been spared jail.
Alison Chabloz was sentenced to 20 weeks imprisonment after being convicted of violating laws against “offensive” or menacing messages, but a judge suspended the punishment for two years.
District judge John Zani banned the 54-year-old from posting anything on social media for a year and ordered her to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.
He told Westminster Magistrates’ Court that Chabloz had shown “no proper remorse” for her actions, adding: “I don't know whether you want to be a martyr to your purported cause – time will tell.
“This sentence will test your resolve. If you fail to abide by the terms of the suspended sentence you should expect to go to prison.”
The public gallery was packed with her supporters and members of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which sparked the case with a private prosecution.
Chairman Gideon Falter said the sentence “sends a strong message that in Britain, Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy theories will not be tolerated”.
“Chabloz is a remorseless and repulsive antisemite who has spent years obsessively inciting others to hate Jews, principally by claiming that the Holocaust was a hoax perpetrated by Jews to defraud the world,” he added, calling her a “pathetic and insignificant figure”.
Chabloz, a Swiss-British dual nation, had been convicted of three counts of gross offence over her songs, which she had performed on YouTube and at far-right events.
Partly set to traditional Jewish folk music, with lyrics like: “Did the Holocaust ever happen? Was it just a bunch of lies? Seems that some intend to pull the wool over our eyes."
Chabloz told the court her songs were “satire” and claimed some Jewish people found them funny.
Prosecutor Karen Robinson previously told the court: "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."
While being cross-examined in March, Chabloz called for an “official investigation” into the number of victims killed in the “so-called Holocaust”, and claimed there was no proof that gas chambers existed.
She told the court school children were being “indoctrinated” by being sent to Auschwitz, called Israel a “criminal state” and claimed that Jews are disproportionately influential.
In mitigation, a defence lawyer for Chabloz said that the videos had not been widely viewed before the court case.
Adrian Davies added that Chabloz has received death and rape threats since her conviction.
Judge Zani had previously dismissed an attempt by Mr Davies to argue his client was protected by the right to freedom of speech, saying her songs were “grossly offensive”.
Chabloz, of Charlesworth in Derbyshire, was convicted of causing an offensive, indecent or menacing message to be sent over a public communications network after performing songs at a London Forum event in 2016.
The Independent infiltrated a meeting of the far-right group the following year, where Chabloz played again, finishing her set with a parody of Edith Piaf’s “I Regret Nothing” and performing a quenelle salute.
The event was compèred by London Forum leader Jeremy Bedford-Turner, who was jailed for a year in May over a speech where he incited people to “free England from Jewish control”.
Chabloz was sentenced a day after a group of neo-Nazis were jailed for posting racist stickers around a university in Birmingham, while another alleged member of National Action has admitted plotting to murder a Labour MP with a machete.
Statistics released by the Home Office on Thursday showed the number of far-right terrorists in prison has tripled in the past year to 29.
Islamists make up the majority of terror suspects in the UK, with arrests rising to a record level.
Additional reporting by PA