Anyone seen woman arrested for saying f****t in a private text message?

She said she pleaded guilty because her lawyer said they would charge as a hate crime and she could get 5-10 years.

It is concerning in light of removal of juries. I think we need to fight that and it seems it’s only ever women who plead guilty to these speech crimes so we need a public service announcement somewhere for women to not plead guilty!

Firstly a simple offence like this would never warrant an arrest a long these lines. Ten police officers to arrest a lone woman is simply mind boggling. If this happened, a full investigation will be required. Particularly as every defendant has the right to dignity.

If this person is of previous good character, it is likely to be a fine anyway assuming she is guilty, even with the ‘aggravating’ feature. The word was used up to a few years and fairly indiscriminately, she would have a case as a defence to say she simply did not know it was so offensive.

Where did the offence take place? It can’t be here surely, our police forces are run off their feet at the moment, and would reserve this kind of force for dangerous criminals with weapons or similar.

Do you think such behaviour should be a criminal offence?

And you are either evading the answer or genuinely not understanding the implications of the position of "it depends on a context" when it comes to the freedom of expression (or lack thereof) and deciding whether a word is a crime.

I will leave you with it.

She was convicted under the communications act. The slur was an aggravating factor.

I agree the proposed restriction of juries is problematic, but I don't agree that people should be allowed to go about being homophobic, sexist or anything similar under the name of 'free speech'.

But we know the police love being heavy-handed when it comes to easy targets. Look at Glinner being arrested at the airport by armed guards, or the couple who were arrested by six officers in front of their children for criticising their child's school on WhatsApp.

Also, she's from Merseyside and says the f word is used a lot for someone who is weak, she's right, it is. So is the word "gay". It's not right, but it's common language used. I've said worse in private messages. Hell one of my best friends is in my contacts as ..... f**t.

The public is being constantly gaslit!
Just yesterday in Leamington Spa, two 17yr olds were convicted/sentenced for the rape of a a rape 15yr old white British child.

One dragged her into the bushes and phoned his mate to come and help before both raping her.

No MSM actually reported the FACTS that these boys were Afghan illegal migrants living in taxpayer funded accommodation.

So another girl has her life ruined because our Government are allowing men from mediaeval cultures to enter our country illegally and roam the streets.

HOW MUCH LONGER ARE OUR GOVERNMENT GOING TO SACRIFICE OUR WOMEN AND GIRLS ON THE ALTER OF “DIVERSITY”

To preserve our Free Speech, we should all join the Free Speech Union and stuff this Government and their censorship.

They want the public cowed into submission. After all it worked during Covid.

We have to accept this Government is not acting in the interests of the British people and make preparations for future unrest. Because it will come. There’s only so much Brits will take.

And whatever happened to resilience?

“sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me”

I've read a little about this, but the information is pretty sparse.

If he assaulted her he should have been arrested and she should have been given justice for sure.

There is no justification for her using homophobic language. She could have called him a wanker, said she hated him etc, why jump straight to homophobia? Especially with someone that she doesn't know well, as they reported her (I think it was a colleague, but details are vague so that may not be true).

On the face of it, from the little that's in the press, it seems very heavy handed, but they clearly had justification for it or that amount of officers wouldn't have been approved in the first place.

From what I can gather the details have been put out by her and her friends so it's going to be very bias reporting.

And you are either evading the answer or genuinely not understanding the implications of the position of "it depends on a context" when it comes to the freedom of expression (or lack thereof) and deciding whether a word is a crime.

I will leave you with it.

Again, as you seem to be hard of thinking.

It depends on the context

As part of malicious communication then it could be seen as an aggravating factor by the courts

It's not hard to understand

She said she pleaded guilty because her lawyer said they would charge as a hate crime and she could get 5-10 years.

It is concerning in light of removal of juries. I think we need to fight that and it seems it’s only ever women who plead guilty to these speech crimes so we need a public service announcement somewhere for women to not plead guilty!

Do not use the F word or I will be offended and upset. You are on a public forum.

You are being indignant yet still not answering: is it ok then to use the f-t word on its own in a conversation, without the backstory and other aggravating communication? Yes or no?

If someone assaulted me I would not be looking to inflame the situation with them. If they are derranged or unhinged how did she think that was going to turn out? Getting in trouble with the police is probably the least bad outcome. She sounds like an idiot that needs to be told to stand the hell down.

Do not use the F word or I will be offended and upset. You are on a public forum.

You are being indignant yet still not answering: is it ok then to use the f-t word on its own in a conversation, without the backstory and other aggravating communication? Yes or no?

WTF are you talking about? The story is pretty clear. She was charged and pleaded guilty to malicious communication. The use of the word f-t was an aggravating factor. The use of the word on it's own wasn't an offence. There is no 'hate speech' law as such in England and Wales. There are various laws where sentencing can reflect aggravating factors.

I was very much more against the removal of juries before I started reading Mumsnet AIBU threads

She said she pleaded guilty because her lawyer said they would charge as a hate crime and she could get 5-10 years.

It is concerning in light of removal of juries. I think we need to fight that and it seems it’s only ever women who plead guilty to these speech crimes so we need a public service announcement somewhere for women to not plead guilty!

Some of us bothered to look up with whole story though before just jumping to "you can't say anything these days!" When what you can't actually do is send a "barrage" of messages that distress someone.

The use of the word was the clickbait story that started the whole discussion, way before more information was added.

She’s a single mum to 4 kids; care worker which requires enhanced dbs so I don’t know how you can work in that job yet be so dangerous your house requires flagging.

Does seem she was in with the wrong group if the result of a falling out is having your head fractured though. Can you be flagged by association?

Racism/ Homophobia aren't illegal. Your free to have your racist/homophobic thoughts and share them with your nearest and dearest who won't feel harassed by them.

Harassment and malicious communication (sending a 'former friend' a 'barrage' of unsolicited text messages - quotes from the Daily Mail article) are illegal whether it involves racism or homophobia or doesn't. They can be aggravating factors though.

Out of interest what racism do you feel should be legal and what racism do you think crosses a line?

I she is calling someone a faggot to their face in an abusive manner then perhaps that’s abusive.

But to say to someone else who isn’t the individual - I didn’t think that could be a hate crime. No matter how offensive. And that’s without the assault allegation.