Beheading phone video leads to jail term

A man has been jailed for 60 days for showing a woman footage of an Iraqi hostage beheading on his mobile phone.

Subhaan Younis, 23, was staying at the Moat House Hotel in Glasgow last September, when he showed the clips to Charlotte McClay, a shop assistant who worked at the hotel. She was said to be “shocked, upset and distressed” by the footage, which Younis had downloaded from internet.

Mr Younis, who is from Glasgow, told the city’s district court that he believed Miss McClay knew she was going to see footage of a hostage beheading. His solicitor, Dominic Sellar, said that Mr Younis had made a “colossal mistake” and accepted that he was responsible for causing upset to Miss McClay.

However, stipendiary magistrate Euan Edment, said: “I struggle to understand why you had images on your phone entailing the death and degradation of another human being, regardless of their religion or race.”

Mr Younis was found guilty of a breach of the peace and sentenced to 60 days in jail.

(KMcA/SP)