UK man convicted for sending "menacing" tweet wins appeal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19009344

by JonnieCache • 14 years ago

53 29 14 years ago

bbc.co.uk

I can't find anything now about it, but I seem to remember he lost his job due to this. What compensation does he get for that?

nicholassmith• 14 years ago

As far as I can remember he was either a trainee accountant, or a financial manager. Something along those lines anyway.

As I see no mention of financial restitution I'm guessing it's a 'you no longer have a criminal record, feel lucky about that'.

Tyrannosaurs• 14 years ago

He was a Financial Manager and did lose his job. He's now a trainee accountant.

I've just tweeted one of his lawyers (David Allen Green aka Jack of Kent) asking. He's normally pretty good at responding to questions (he's answered stuff I've asked before), shall post if he does.

UPDATE: This from The Guardian:

"Chambers said outside court: "It was a long, hard road. I would like to thank everyone on Twitter." He had lost two jobs because of his conviction, he said, but "it was now time to move on". After the judgment, the Crown Prosecution Service was accused by Chambers's supporters of wasting public funds in pursuing its action against the trainee accountant."

Lost two jobs though it he doesn't sound like he's looking for compensation.

alpine3• 14 years ago

His local MP, Louise Mensch apparently tweeted 'It is for Parliament to investigate actions here'. Talk about missing the point! This man was convicted because he fell foul of the nannying, micromanaging, politically correct, busy-body society that Parliament has allowed and facilitated to evolve. We need less political interference in our lives if we are to stop absurd prosecutions like this one.

mathieuh• 14 years ago

Ah, The Mensch. A foul beast if ever I've seen one. I can remember her flying off the handle and saying she was going to send the police to a fifteen-year-old's house for something he tweeted at her.

gadders• 14 years ago

Presumably her tolerance for idiots on twitter has been lowered somewhat due to the man that threatened to kill her children.

Zenst• 14 years ago

She is a reactionary showboater who will hype anything for a chance to get a face out there. I think she is a dispicable person. Who else when they get a tweet about some known person who makes silly tweets. Does she call the police to have a word with him, no she tweets come on in effect. I don't like her and she optimises all the worst in politicians. She even set up her own tweet riip off, so for her to lambast twitter is purely alteria motives. So in effect it is her showboating that casued this mess with her doing her rabble rabble in parliment.

andyking• 14 years ago

Comment by jgrahamc that has been inexplicably dead-ed:

Her actual tweets read:

CPS owe my constituent @pauljchambers and the country a huge apology for a shameful prosecution that should never have been brought

Two years of a man's life, stress and massive public costs wasted over an obvious joke. It is for Parliament to investigate actions here.

Whether it is the Justice or Home Affairs Select Cttee, the CPS and this decision should be investigated on Parlt return #twitterjoketrial

I think she's asking that parliament look into why the CPS ever brought this to trial in the first place.

alpine3• 14 years ago

She's asking that the people who caused the problem (Parliament), investigate with a view to determining why there is a problem.

antihero• 14 years ago

If anyone else isn't from the UK, know that Louise Mensch is a vile, ignorant person.

uberalex2• 14 years ago

The link to the full judgment was tweeted here: https://twitter.com/JudiciaryUK/status/228777076352770048

andyjohnson0• 14 years ago

Impressed that the UK judiciary has a twitter feed.

Depressed that it has taken them two years to see what was obvious to everyone else in the country wrt this case

uberalex2• 14 years ago

For me, the blame lies principally with the CPS and the Police, who should have exercised their judgment and not prosecuted.

Mordor• 14 years ago

Can this guy sue the CPS for the damage they've caused him?

smashing2• 14 years ago

Next time he'll use the #joke hashtag.

TazeTSchnitzel• 14 years ago

#ThisIsAJokePleaseDontProsecuteMe

ktizo2• 14 years ago

Why should ordinary people have to suffer? Make the terrorists use the #ThisIsAnActualTerrorThreatNoReallyItIs hashtag instead. Which would also give them far less characters left over in which to communicate their despicable intentions and so therefore they won't be able to have as big a list of things they are going to destroy. I'm sure that's more or less how these things work.

smashing2• 14 years ago

If only that worked for Sexual Harassment lawsuits.

readme2• 14 years ago

I wonder what would happen if someone did the same in the US. We do have the first amendment and all, but an airport?

It seems that the constitution is null and void in all situations relevant to airports now.

rayiner• 14 years ago

The scaling back of these protections isn't unique to the airport context. The breakdown of Constitutional protections against search and seizure happened back in the 1970's and 1980's, under the conservative Burger court (in conjunction with the drug war). Middle class people are just noticing now, in the airport context, what poor minorities have been dealing with for a couple of decades now.

That said, I'm not aware of any similar breakdown in 1st amendment protections. The author's tweet in America would be evaluated under a test that would look at whether people would actually consider his statement to be a threat (keeping in mind that the internet makes it uniquely hard to convey context that might mitigate words that are threatening on their face). So far as I know, courts have been following this pretty faithfully.

readme2• 14 years ago

I agree that minorities have totally been screwed on the 4th amendment. Same with middle class people too now. There are warrant-less checkpoints all over the country.

Fortunately, there is one fairly good guarantee of protecting your fourth amendment rights. Your smart phone.

If you suspect you're about to be unconstitutionally searched, bust out your smart phone, say I do not consent to this illegal search loud and clear, and film the cop.

If he doesn't try to steal your phone, you're all set!

ljf• 14 years ago

Not quite the same, but recently two Brits were turned back and denied entry to the US, after 'jokey' twitter threats to dig up the body of Marilyn Monroe: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/la-tourists-arrested-d...

JonnieCache• 14 years ago

I think that one was more to do with their unfortunate use of the phrase "destroy america," which in UK parlance can mean "to disrupt with heavy drinking and debauchery." One might say, the morning after the night before, "We fucking destroyed that club last night! It was crazy." A very bad choice of words to be read by US immigration.

UK man convicted for sending "menacing" tweet wins appeal

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