Police in Ireland have dropped an investigation into whether entertainer Stephen Fry made blasphemous comments on a TV show in 2015 after failing to find enough complainants.
The investigation was launched after an unidentified man made a complaint over an appearance Mr Fry made on an RTE show in which Mr Fry asked why he should “respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?” and went on to describe “the god who created this universe, if it was created by god, is quite clearly a maniac, [an] utter maniac, totally selfish”.
A clip of Mr Fry’s appearance on The Meaning of Life posted on YouTube has had more than seven million views.
The Irish Independent has reported that Irish police decided to halt the investigation after failing to find a large enough group of people who had been outraged by the comments. The man who made the initial report told the newspaper he was satisfied he had done his “civic duty” in making the report and that the police had done theirs in investigating it.
Under Ireland’s controversial Defamation Act 2009 a person who publishes or utters blasphemous material could face a fine of up to €25,000.