Twitter Joke Man cleared

[Gromit]

Commnsense finally revails.

http://www.telegraph....ed-in-High-Court.html

All a pointless waste of money?

[sp1814]

Good job.

And a marvellously bitchy line from you in the comments section.

[sp1814]

Here's something I'd like to know...how did an 'off duty security officer' spot the message???

[jno]

yes, complete waste of time and money.

[Duncer]

Quite. I often made throwaway remarks like that.

[rojash]

It would be nice to say "Common sense prevails", if it wasn't for the fact the the whole farce demonstrates that the police, the CPS, a magistrate and a high court judge clearly have none whatsoever.

[VHG]

But what about when "real" terrorists start putting words like "bomb" and "blow up airport" in their emails, do we treat all that as a joke as well.

Or when people walk through security at an airport and make comments about bombs in their luggage. Is that a joke?

And what about the guy a year or so back who was late for a plane and phoned up the airport and said there was a bomb at the airport, so it would delay his plane so he could catch it. Do we treat that as a joke?

These things need to be taken seriously so that people stop doing it and treating blowing up planes and airports as a joke.

Maybe he will think carefully next time.

[rojash]

Sorry VHG, but if you can't tell the difference between a tweeted "joke" and a threatening call phone call to an airport, then there is something seriously wrong.

[Gromit]

It would be extremely useful if Terrorists Tweeted their intentions before hand and did not disguise their identities.

It must be assumed that many terror threats are thwarted because Al-Qaeda sent a tweet naming the time and place before hand. And this 'joke' just got mixed up with those.

[ludwig]

Common sense has prevailed.

Not much of a joke though was it? Not exactly rib tickling.

[youngmafbog]

Not really a total waste of time.

Sometimes we need test cases like these, particulalry around 'new' technology which the law is oftern well behind.

In this particular case it was clearly a 'joke' if you read the tweet. But once again we find the mini Hitler's and jobsworths out in force. Unfortunaltgey the Public sector is full of them. (and so is the Judiciary, lets not forget the old fart who refused the appeal before)

Lets hope this case forces the CPS to consider a bit more carefully next time.

[VHG]

>>>Sorry VHG, but if you can't tell the difference between a tweeted "joke" and a threatening call phone call to an airport...

It is easy to spot it afterwards, not always at the time.

A "joke" like this could cause an airport to close, flights to be delayed, and who knows what else.

Look how many idiots used Facebook to try to stir up the riots last year.No secrecy, no fake identities. Were they joking?

[jno]

not strictly a "joke", VHG, but pretty clearly just letting off steam, even on the face of it. Since it gave a week's deadline, it wouldn't have caused any airport closures.

I've got no problems with the police looking into it, just in case. But why they thought it should go any further is beyond me. The subsequent CPS involvement and court hearings (complete with guilty verdict) were massively disproportionate.

The upside is that this may force the whole "security" industry to take a few steps back.

[Cockneycarl]

Does this now mean if i say "I'll kill him" in a jokey throwaway kind of way to someone that i will be found not guilty of threats to kill by the courts?

[Messi_Ten]

Jobsworths love anything like that on Facebook or Twitter. It means every idiot with a uniform and high-vis jacket can crawl out the woodwork and bring the country to a standstill.

"Motorway network closed by electronic ciggie"

[LazyGun]

Its an excellent result.It was an overreaction to what was clearly a jokey comment borne out of frustration of the individual concerned.

I think anyone reading the original tweet would reasonably conclude this was not any sort of credible threat.

His life has been in a state of turmoil for 2 years now, all because the police, then the CPS and then the original judge all had the same over-reaction.

It has become an important test case, and hopefully will inform decisions made by the police and CPS in the future.