Jail for man who threatened Heidi Allen - does this set a precedent?

[Taswama]

Man jailed for terrifying threats to Heidi Allen over Brexit (guardian article) - on phone so I can’t link.

It says he was found guilty of sending offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing messages using a public communications network.
Surely this is not uncommon on Twitter. Can other women use this law as well, where they are getting rape threats etc. Or are the police only interested when it’s an MP?

Haven't online threats always fallen under 'malicious communications'?

Assuming they have (and I'm not a lawyer) in theory women always could have used this law. In practice as we know all too well women being threatened is routinely ignored by the powers that be.

I suspect this case was only taken seriously because another MP had already been murdered by a brexiter. Other women MPs are known to receive endless threats from anti-semites, from trans privilege activists, from extremists of other stripes. It is rare anything is done even when MPs are involved.

I got the impression that this was threated seriously because of the "threat to democracy". The threat to an actual woman, not so much.

Here's a link to the Heidi Allen story:
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/08/man-jailed-for-terrifying-threats-to-heidi-allen-over-brexit

Snip:
[The judge] said the tweets, Facebook post and email made it clear the former Royal Marine regarded Allen’s views as “treacherous”.

He added: “It’s quite clear to me that the cumulative effect of these on Ms Allen would have been terrifying. Those, in short, made it clear that you regarded her particular views as being treacherous.

“You indicated you were close to giving her address to people that wanted it. That’s clearly threatening.”

One of the tweets had referenced the scaffolding around Allen’s home at the time and said “maybe I should add a rope to my yellow vest order”, the court heard.

The judge said that another of the posts had included details which would allow anyone to identify Allen’s home.

He added: “That immediately put Ms Allen at significant risk.

“You followed that up with an email where you again reiterated your large following and reiterated there were people who were interested in knowing who she was and indicating that they sometimes get out of control, again, a very menacing comment.”

Thanks for posting the link Blue . Yes I thought it was threatening an MP was seen as a threat to democracy.

Here is another extract from the article:

He said the offences merited a prison term, as intimidating MPs was “an attack on democracy”.

He added: “If people are too frightened, too intimidated, to stand as MPs then the quality of public life is significantly undermined.”

It seems that the crime stems not so much from the intimidation of, and threat to, an individual woman, but from the fact that this kind of behaviour and intimidation will put people off standing as MPs. In other words, the victim isn’t Heidi Allen, but an abstract principle. I don’t hold out any hope that this sets a precedent for how threats to ordinary women will be dealt with by police and the courts in the future.

Or are the police only interested when it’s an MP
We have already had one woman pro EU MP assassinated by an extreme right winger.

To put it another way.

Heidi Allen would not have had death threats and worse if she had been a Brexist.

Neither would Jess Phillips, Anna Soubry, Gina Miller, Dr Wollaston etc.and many of us non MP ordinary pro EU women.