Notorious antisemite Alison Chabloz to serve another seven weeks in prison after humiliatingly losing appeal against conviction secured following action by CAA
The notorious antisemite Alison Chabloz has today humiliatingly been sent back to prison for seven weeks after losing her own appeal last week.
The appeal was against her conviction under section 127 of the Communications Act for sending by a public communications network an offensive, indecent message or material. That conviction was secured following action by Campaign Against Antisemitism, which has been pursuing justice against Ms Chabloz for years.
Ms Chabloz had been held on remand since the two-day hearing before Judge Martin Beddoe at Southwark Crown Court ended last Friday, with sentencing due to take place on Monday. However, the court had not yet heard from the probation service about which elements of Ms Chabloz’s original sentence – nine weeks in prison (half of an eighteen week sentence), 180 hours of unpaid work and twenty days of Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR) – had been served. The prosecution noted on Monday that “it’s a concern of the prosecution that she will do exactly the same thing again,” that Ms Chabloz has an “obsession” with Jewish people and Judaism and is “incapable of not abusing Jewish people,” and therefore should be sentenced accordingly. Without a complete update from the probation order, the court adjourned until this morning.
Today, the probation officer took the stand and revealed that, after serving her custodial sentence, Ms Chabloz had only served 43 of the 180-hour unpaid work requirement and only four days of RAR. Ms Chabloz had disputed part of this testimony, with Judge Beddoe, sitting today with magistrates, cautioning her: “If you don’t shut up, I’ll have to send you downstairs. Please be quiet. Just stop. This is the last order!”
“These records have a lot to be desired,” Judge Beddoe observed, noting that he would need to make adjustments to his anticipated sentence. After a brief adjournment, Judge Beddoe reminded Ms Chabloz that “you knew when you lodged the appeal and persisted that the sentence would be at large should it fail.” This is because defendants convicted in magistrates’ court, as Ms Chabloz was, are usually given leave to appeal their cases to a crown court, but with the risk that, if their appeal is dismissed, there is a possibility that their sentence may be increased.
Judge Beddoe noted that “the first of the offences was barely one month after the suspended sentence order and the second for the same thing was two months after that” and denied Ms Chabloz’s earlier claim that hate crimes do not generate violence, adding that the court’s experience was “that they very much do.”
Ms Chabloz presented herself as a victim of online trolling, claiming also that she lost her job in 2014 after someone wrote to her employer about her antisemitic views. Judge Beddoe dismissed these contentions, observing that this was the result of her behaviour, and that if she changed her ways, the supposed trolling would likely cease. He concluded that “there’s no mitigation that we can find.” Observing further that “there’s no remorse on your part, simply defiance,” he concluded that the enhanced sentencing is “entirely a consequence of your actions.”
Ms Chabloz was sentenced to 32 weeks in prison, which represents both an uplift from the original eighteen-week sentence and the re-imposition of part of the suspended sentence that Ms Chabloz received in her first conviction in 2018. That verdict arose from a private prosecution by Campaign Against Antisemitism that was later continued by the Crown Prosecution Service and set a major legal precedent, as Ms Chabloz became the first person in Britain to be convicted over Holocaust denial.
She must serve half of this 32-week sentence, i.e. sixteen weeks, of which she has already served nine, leaving seven weeks of the custodial sentence to be served. There is no criminal behaviour order, because the court did not consider that such an order would prevent Ms Chabloz from re-offending, but she must pay the court £1,800. Judge Beddoe warned her that, if she is convicted again, the sentence will be “merely more severe next time.”
On leaving court, Ms Chabloz was heard calling out: “I hope to have a jury trial next time.”
Ms Chabloz’s conviction arose on the basis of the previous landmark precedent secured against her by Campaign Against Antisemitism over her obsessive Holocaust denial used to hound Jews. Some of the offences of which Ms Chabloz was convicted in her more recent case arose from comments that she made on Graham Hart’s internet radio show. Since her earlier conviction and incarceration, Mr Hart, who called Jews “filth” and asked listeners for a gun, pleaded guilty to eight charges under the Public Order Act 1986 after investigations by Campaign Against Antisemitism, and was sentenced to 32 months in prison, of which he will serve half.
Ms Chabloz is a virulent antisemite and Holocaust denier who has an extensive record of using social media to publicise her hatred for Jews and to convert others to her views about Jewish people. She is fixated on the idea that the Holocaust did not occur, and that it was fabricated by Jews and their supporters as a vehicle for fraudulently extorting money in the form of reparations. This forms the basis for her second obsession, that Jews are liars and thieves who are working to undermine Western society. Ms Chabloz is also connected to extremist right-wing movements, at whose meetings she gives speeches and performs her songs, in the UK, France and North America.
Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Six years ago, we watched in horror as Alison Chabloz made liberal use of social media to abuse and harass the descendants of Holocaust victims, accuse Jews of endorsing paedophilia and murdering Christian children and bait rabbis with tweets that exonerated Hitler. We decided then that, however long it took and whatever obstacles were put in our way, we would ensure that British Jews were protected against her virulent antisemitism.
“With this enhanced custodial sentence that draws together her numerous convictions, she is now reaping the rewards of her own hateful behaviour. Jew haters like Ms Chabloz and the recently-convicted radio host Graham Hart now know that we will not rest in our defence of the Jewish community. Others with similar views should take note.”
In separate proceedings also resulting from action by Campaign Against Antisemitism, Ms Chabloz is due back in court on 1st September to be tried for further alleged offences under the Communications Act (the original charges have been downgraded to this lesser offence).
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group.
