to think this was not in the slightest bit menacing

[nancydrewrocked]

Paul Chambers posted this on twitter in response to the airport being closed thus jepordising his romantic weekend away:

"Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high."

He has just lost his appeal having been convicted of "menacing".

The appeal judge ruled the message was clearly "menacing in its content and obviously so. It could not be more clear. Any ordinary person reading this would see it in that way and be alarmed."

Really?

Will accept ill advised, foolish but would anyone here have felt alarmed if they read that message?

more info

I don't think I would have taken it seriously.

Silly joke.

It's in the same bracket as the idiots muck around in airport security and say they've got a bomb in their hand-luggage. When it comes to airports, jokes don't go down well at all... Out of context, and in the public domain, the way this was phrased made it a threatening statement. The councillor that tweeted his 'jokey' suggestion that Yasmin Alibhai-Brown should be stoned to death also found that he should be more careful in future.

Just waiting for a genuine terrorist to slip through the net because they tweet 'About to blow up Heathrow Terminal 1....' and because they add '.. LOL :)..' no-one takes it seriously.

On the basis of this Act half of MN should be in chokey. :o

(1)
A person is guilty of an offence if he—

(a)
sends by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or

(2)
A person is guilty of an offence if, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another, he:
(c)
persistently makes use of a public electronic communications network.

Apparently hundreds of people are putting out the same Tweet today, followed by I'm Spartacus.

An ill thought out message to be sure - but menacing - get a grip!

But Chippingin 12 jurors were persuaded otherwise!

How come ?

When I was about 8 I had a penfriend who sent me a letter with "there is a bomb in this envelope hahaha" written on the back in childish handwriting. Obviously there wasn't - it was a thin envelope containing a single sheet of paper, but it had been opened and resealed before it got to me. These days they'd probably destroy it in a controlled explosion.

There's free speech, there's making a joke and there's shouting 'fire' in a crowded cinema. We've got a heightened security risk at the moment & bombs were recently planted on cargo planes designed to detonate over the US. The wording of that tweet was a categoric threat broadcast publicly. There is no hint in the wording that it is meant to be a joke... no smiley face... no LOL.... I feel sorry for the poor man that made the mistake of sending it but tweets are bound by the same laws as anything else.

I don't feel that sorry for him - what a stupid thing to write.

I mean his writing, not yours, which makes complete sense.

cumfy it wasn't a jury trial. One district judge or three lay magistrates convicted him in the first instant.

A single Judge heard and rejected the appeal.

Chill1234 Isn't it only a "threat" if there is intention or someone believes there to be intention? (not talking about the legal definition just what teh average person would consider to be a threat)

There have been plenty of posters on here along lines of "my DC's are driving me bloody mad, they haven't stopped whinging all day...if they don't pull themselves together I might just kill 'em" but no one believes those are anything other than expressions of irritation do they?

How do you take that as anything other than a joke? A pretty stupid one TBF but I can't see how anyone would think that was "menacing"

The argument was that a tweet sent to 600 of his 'close friends' was not to be taken seriously. But a bomb threat against an airport - even in jest - is pretty serious stuff in today's climate. So I can see why he was originally fined £400 to set an example. BTW He's lucky that he's a dopey white bloke called Chambers. Just imagine if he had had a name of Pakistani origin or had ever visited Afghanistan for a holiday... they'd have sent in a SWAT team and slapped him in Belmarsh.

I remember reading the build-up story to this.

Apparently he had a lot of twitter followers because his tweets were funny, eclectic, etc. one of his followers was the Irish girl and he struck up a relationship with her and other followers were delighted.

I hope I've got this right (don't quote me)but I think he was going to meet her for the first time when he made the comment that got him into so much trouble (context!). Obviously his followers were routing (rooting?) for him...anyway, it was romance-and-bliss with the Irish lass, he secured a job then someone reported him, he lost his job and the rest is farcical.

Infact it's got to be the next rom-com starring Jennifer Aniston with a dodgy Irish accent.

Robin Hood is buried near Huddersfield

Nancy

cumfy it wasn't a jury trial

I wonder why he didn't elect for a jury trial ?

I suspect this will end up being overturned in the supreme court.