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Airport tweet ‘made law look silly’ UPDATED
A man found guilty of sending a “menacing tweet” was the victim of a legal “steamroller” that threatened to make the law look silly, it was argued at the High Court.
Paul Chambers, 27, said he thought that no-one would ever have taken seriously his joking threat to blow an airport “sky high”.
Accountant Chambers said he sent the tweet to his 600 “followers” in a moment of frustration after Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire was closed by snow in January 2010.
But he was convicted at Doncaster Magistrates’ Court of sending “a message of a menacing character”, contrary to provisions of the 2003 Communications Act, fined £385 and ordered to pay £600 costs.
Today he asked two High Court judges to overturn a Doncaster Crown Court decision in November 2010 upholding his conviction and sentence - a decision which pushed the costs order against him up to £2,600.
Among his many supporters are fellow “twitter comedians” Charlie Brooker and Stephen Fry.`
The message he tweeted read: “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!”
Crown Court Judge Jacqueline Davies, sitting with two magistrates, said the electronic communication was “clearly menacing” and that airport staff were sufficiently concerned to report it.
She added: “We find it impossible to accept that anyone living in this country, in the current climate of terrorist threats, would not be aware of the consequences of their actions in making such a statement.”
Today at London’s High Court, Ben Emmerson QC, appearing for Chambers, argued the Crown Court had erred in law - and in common sense.
Mr Emmerson suggested it was hardly likely that anyone planning to blow up an airport would post their intentions on Twitter.
He told Lord Justice Gross and Mr Justice Irwin that conviction and sentence were normally meant to have a deterrent effect, but in the Chambers’ case they had the opposite effect.
His conviction caused resentment and triggered an “I am Spartacus!” campaign in which 4,000 people tweeted the Chambers message across Twitter - “none of whom were arrested”, said Mr Emmerson.
He added: “One has to inject common sense to avoid the law ending up looking silly.”
He told the judges the questions for them were “whether this prosecution-conviction-sentence was a steam roller to crack a very small nut and whether it was a disproportionate response”.
Today’s hearing started with a joke and laughter. The judges had been asked before the start of the hearing whether members of the public could tweet the hearing.
Just before the judges entered Court 74, the court usher appeared at the front of the court and - waggling her fingers over an imaginary keyboard - announced: “You can twitter, as long as you behave!”
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
