AfterDawn: News

Twitter user convicted after 'menacing' message

UK citizen Paul Chambers has been convicted this week of sending a 'menacing' tweet via Twitter, with the British Court fining him £1000 and slapping him with a criminal record.

In early January, the airport in South Yorkshire was closed due to excessive snow and Chambers was so mad that he wrote: "Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your s*** together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!"



Airport security officials saw the tweet and then passed on the complaint to the local authorities.

Chambers lost his job after being arrested, and appears to be the first person to ever be convicted of a crime just for tweeting.

Although the tweet was a joke, the Doncaster Magistrates' Court found Chambers guilty of sending threatening messages and therefore imposed the steep fine.

Chambers says he is considering an appeal, as the criminal record jeopardizes his chances of securing a new job.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 10 May 2010 21:00

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• 8 comments

• xaosai

  the inner troll strikes again

  10.5.2010 23:01 #1

• Josipher

  "sir i was just tweeting,thats not a crime is it?!"
  "well as it turns out it is richards,your fired."
  WHOOPS
  :)

  10.5.2010 23:40 #2

• NHS2008

  Time to delete some of tweets!
  

  
  
  PlayStation(R)2SlimV12RIPPER4.Dead!||PlayStation(R)2 Slim v16+DMS4 Toxic.Working fine
  http://www.myspace.com/nhsuniverse

  11.5.2010 02:32 #3

• crunk15

  stupid!
  i hate the world. do i get arrested 2?
  

  11.5.2010 03:03 #4

• Mysttic

  And anyone who tweets, chances are has been on the net, also should realize that people need to be more and more careful at what they say in public be it in person/cellular messaging/internet or otherwise. He would lose this appeal if he tried, as people just take bomb threats too seriously now after 911.

  11.5.2010 10:05 #5

• SmOkM

  he clearly shouldn't have posted it, but there is a balance issue for me as regards marking him for life
  
  
  
  

  11.5.2010 16:01 #6

• xboxdvl2

  he shouldn't of posted it but he was obviously angry and posting out of anger not criminal intent.Dont know if temporary insainity holds up in court or not and sometimes you say things in anger that you don't actually mean.
  

  PS2 with 12 games.
  pc-windows 7,intel core quad Q8400,4 Gb ddr2,WD 500 GB hdd,ATI Radeon HD 4550 graphics,AOC 22inch LCD moniter.

  12.5.2010 01:06 #7

• adamryan

  Simple problem easily avoided. Just make profile private.
  

  14.5.2010 18:05 #8