THE prankster convicted of hate crimes after releasing a viral video in which he trains his dog to Sieg Heil and react to the phrase "gas the Jews" has revealed that he tried to get the sheriff to put him behind bars.

Mark Meechan, 30, who was fined £800 after being found guilty at Airdrie Sheriff Court of communicating a video which was deemed to be "grossly offensive" said he thought that by telling the court that to refuse any punishment meted out, he would be sent to jail.

Mr Meechan, known by his online moniker of Count Dankula, spoke out while launching a gofundme.com bid to raise £100,000 to fight his conviction at the High Court. It had raised over £7,500 in the space of three hours.

The Herald:

Meechan, from Coatbridge insists his two-year-old M8 Yer Dugs A Nazi video featuring his pug Buddha, which has been viewed more than three million times, was meant as a joke to wind up his girlfriend.

He said he told his solicitor he would "refuse any punishment" that the sheriff handed down "because I am no criminal, I committed no crime and I have done nothing wrong".

READ MORE: 'Nazi dog' prankster Mark Meechan to ask public for £100k for High Court 'free speech' appeal

He added: "I was fully prepared to go to jail because in my head, I was thinking my form of protest is to refuse any punishment the judge gives me. Which means the only option the judge will be left with is jail. "So I have got it fully 100 per cent in my mind I am going to jail, that's the only option I am leaving the judge. "I got to make my statement of protest but the judge didn't send me to jail.

The Herald:

I didn't tell Sue [his girlfriend] that I was actually trying to get sent to jail. This left Sue very angry."

Meechan who says the case raises issues about freedom of speech said he will not be paying the fine and if he the sentence stuck, he would give the amount to charity and post the evidence of the donation online.

READ MORE: Video - Row over police filming London protest over Scots 'Nazi dog' creator conviction

Speaking in one of his videos, Meechan said: "The amount required for the gofundme is a high amount, but there is a good reason for this. The reason it is so high is we need to make absolutely sure that we get this conviction overturned so that we can remove the standard that it sets where a person's words and actions can have their intent and context completely ignored.

The Herald:

"They can be handcuffed, led to jail, have their a*se dragged through the Scottish justice system for two years and have their life completely ruined, and have their name completely destroyed by the mainstream media and then at the end of it have a criminal record. That can now happen to anyone over something as simple as a joke.

Herald View: Mark Meechan case raises difficult questions around freedom of speech

"I can't allow what me and my family went through to happen to anyone else and if my case sets the standard for this, then that just means it is going to be so much easier for the Scottish justice service to do this to anyone.

"So the £100,000 funds are going towards legal giants, the big boys, the big guns. Because I want to ensure that we are more than well equipped to get this overturned and remove the standard that this case sets.

The Herald:

"We don't want to come in with a cheap lawyer who's going to give this case a little slap. We want to come in with massive legal bad boys who are going to nuke this thing to f..ing orbit. "Because I don't want the standard that this case sets to be used do torment anybody else. And I want to make absolutely f..ing certain that we are successful."

He insisted there would be 100 percent transparency over the costs of his case, with "every single bill" revealed to show where the money is going.

The Herald:

And he said if there was any cash left over it would go to charity and he would again post evidence online of this.

He also said he was strongly considering setting up a fund to protect people being persecuted over their freedom of speech.

In London, hundreds gathered for an anti-censorship march in support of Meechan organised by The Liberalists UK, who describe themselves as a "mix of centre-left (social liberal) and centre-right (classical liberal) individualists",

The Herald:

During the demonstration police were confronted by police officers who were videoing the protest.

Meechan said the police should not be blamed for what happened.

"A lot of people are sending hate to actually police officers and are blaming them for stuff like this," he said. "Don't blame the police officers. They don't make the laws. They just uphold them."

And he said that a lot of people had asked him if the outcome of the trial had increased his hatred for Jews.

"I never hated Jews in the first place and I don't now," he said. "And I also don't blame them for what happened to me. So you can go f... yourself."

The Herald:

Dozens of supporters of Meechan, including former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, were at Airdrie Sheriff Court for the sentencing hearing on Monday.

Sheriff Derek O'Carroll said the video was grossly offensive and that his girlfriend did not even subscribe to the video channel he posted it on.

He said: "You say the video was only intended as a joke to upset your girlfriend, whose dog you used, and nothing more.

"On the whole evidence, including your own, applying the law as made by Parliament and interpreted by the most senior courts in this land, I found it proved that the video you posted, using a public communications network, was grossly offensive and contained menacing, anti-Semitic and racist material.

"You deliberately chose the Holocaust as the theme of the video. You purposely used the command 'gas the Jews' as the centrepiece of what you called the entire joke, surrounding the 'gas the Jews' centrepiece with Nazi imagery and the 'Seig Heil' command so there could be no doubt what historical events you were referring to."