12 weeks in Jail for offensive web posts about poor April Jones

My name is URL

The guy that was arrested for making a joke yesterday has been jailed for three months

Matthew Woods, 19, from Chorley, Lancashire, has admitted making grossly offensive comments about the five year old girl, missing schoolgirl April Jones on his Facebook page after getting the idea from Sickipedia, a website that trades in sick jokes.

Woods also wrote comments of sexually explicit nature which so outraged members of the public that they reported the page to the police.

As word spread of Woods’ actions on Saturday, a vigilante mob of around 50 people descended upon his house. He was arrested for his own safety and taken into custody.

Martina Jay, for the prosecution, told Chorley Magistrates Court that Woods admitted to officers that he was responsible for the postings about April and also about the missing child Madeline McCann.

I wonder if the vigilante mob will also be arrested and jailed for dangerous and threatening behavior :rolleyes:

Scioch

My name is URL wrote: »

The guy that was arrested for making a joke yesterday has been jailed for three months



I wonder if the vigilante mob will also be arrested and jailed for dangerous and threatening behavior :rolleyes:

Is the moral of this story to start getting together in angry mods and descending on the homes of all the dirt bag TD's and bankers to get them arrested ? Cos I'll do it.

tigger123

My name is URL wrote: »

The guy that was arrested for making a joke yesterday has been jailed for three months



I wonder if the vigilante mob will also be arrested and jailed for dangerous and threatening behavior :rolleyes:

People need to realise that the things you post online are not viewed in the same way as the jokes you crack when you're around your friends.

My name is URL

tigger123 wrote: »

People need to realise that the things you post online are not viewed in the same way as the jokes you crack when you're around your friends.

He posted it on his own Facebook page. If he had posted it on a family member's page then I could understand the outrage. People will have had to go looking for the post just so they could be offended by it.

And the mob of 50 people that descended on the wrong address are guilty of a more serious crime than making a tasteless joke. Presumably they intended to dish out their own punishment.

HeyThereDeliah

tigger123 wrote: »

People need to realise that the things you post online are not viewed in the same way as the jokes you crack when you're around your friends.

People also need to realise that not everyone is as interested or outraged at things that happen in the world. People have to be allowed their own opinions even if everyone does not agree with them.

Has anyone else read the joke? I was expecting something original and vile but it was just a run-of-the-mill bad joke. Unbelievable stuff.

steve9859

My name is URL wrote: »

He posted it on his own Facebook page. If he had posted it on a family member's page then I could understand the outrage. People will have had to go looking for the post just so they could be offended by it.

That's not true....posting on our own page is the same as effectively sending the message to all your friends, as it appears in all their news feeds. It's effectively the same as sending a tweet to your followers on twitter.

annettea

does anyone know what he said? Cant find it anywhere..

annettea

annettea wrote: »

does anyone know what he said? Cant find it anywhere..

A pun comparison involving the timing of Santa's visiting children and a paedophilic act as if carried out by the suspect.

Latchy

HeyThereDeliah wrote: »

People also need to realise that not everyone is as interested or outraged at things that happen in the world. People have to be allowed their own opinions even if everyone does not agree with them.

From the Telegraph -

A man who posted ''despicable'' comments on his Facebook page about missing April Jones has been jailed for 12 weeks.

Perhaps he will learn about manners and respect while locked up ...god knows he hasn't any .

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/9594228/April-Jones-Facebook-troll-jailed-for-despicable-comments.html#

ibarelycare

What was he jailed for? What law did he break? This is absolutely ridiculous.

Melion

How the hell can someone get jailed for that? What in the name of christ was he charged with?

the_monkey

And again the disgusting nazi police run UK state send a guy to jail for being an idiot.


What he said was tasteless and he has no respect or compassion, but f*ck he does not deserve jail.

In a few years they will be sending people to Jail for sexist comments, or
just calling people an as*hole...

Disgusting Nazi state.

My name is URL

ibarelycare wrote: »

What was he jailed for? What law did he break? This is absolutely ridiculous.

Well he plead guilty to 'sending a grossly offensive public electronic communication'.. I can't find any info about that specific law though.

According to the BBC, the main reason he was sentenced is because of the public reaction to what he said.

The reason for the sentence is the seriousness of the offence, the public outrage that has been caused and we felt there was no other sentence this court could have passed which conveys to you the abhorrence that many in society feel this crime should receive

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-19869710

Since when do the angered masses get to dictate on what sentence a judge hands down?

Sparks43

If Public opinion decides sentences then the whole judicial system is worthless


Try people by Law not Opinion

The Big Red Button

I'm shocked that yer man was even brought to court because of the Facebook thing - never mind being jailed for it.

Presumably this fella will lose his job (if he has one) - if not, he'll be pretty much unemployable. For making a crap joke, on his own Facebook page?! The punishment way exceeds the "crime" - destroying his life, over making some stupid joke.

I assume that this is the first case of its kind - how was he even to know? What law was he breaking, for that matter? It's completely wrong.

I wouldn't be as insensitive as to make jokes about this little girl, but I've made (and laughed at) some fairly distasteful jokes in my time. Where do you draw the line?!

What about the hundreds/thousands of people all over England who have posted Madeleine McCann jokes to their Facebook (in fact, I'm pretty sure there were Facebook pages set up just for this.) Princess Diana jokes. Michael Jackson jokes. "Dead baby" jokes. Those crappy "why did the girl fall off the swing" jokes. Are people who made these jokes all going to be at risk of being jailed for it, now? As I said, where do you draw the line?

For the record, I don't think I've ever found any of the above-mentioned jokes funny. But humour is subjective. If I'm uncomfortable with someone else's sense of humour, I'll probably avoid being in that person's company (or, in this case, I'd not be friends with them on Facebook.) You can't control what people do and don't find funny. He wasn't harming anyone, it's not like he was posting it on the family's Facebook pages or anything.

It's a really stupid and dangerous precedent to be setting, in my opinion.

_feedback_

chatterpillar wrote: »

I'm shocked that yer man was even brought to court because of the Facebook thing - never mind being jailed for it.

Presumably this fella will lose his job (if he has one) - if not, he'll be pretty much unemployable. For making a crap joke, on his own Facebook page?! The punishment way exceeds the "crime" - destroying his life, over making some stupid joke.

I assume that this is the first case of its kind - how was he even to know? What law was he breaking, for that matter? It's completely wrong.

I wouldn't be as insensitive as to make jokes about this little girl, but I've made (and laughed at) some fairly distasteful jokes in my time. Where do you draw the line?!

What about the hundreds/thousands of people all over England who have posted Madeleine McCann jokes to their Facebook (in fact, I'm pretty sure there were Facebook pages set up just for this.) Princess Diana jokes. Michael Jackson jokes. "Dead baby" jokes. Those crappy "why did the girl fall off the swing" jokes. Are people who made these jokes all going to be at risk of being jailed for it, now? As I said, where do you draw the line?

For the record, I don't think I've ever found any of the above-mentioned jokes funny. But humour is subjective. If I'm uncomfortable with someone else's sense of humour, I'll probably avoid being in that person's company (or, in this case, I'd not be friends with them on Facebook.) You can't control what people do and don't find funny. He wasn't harming anyone, it's not like he was posting it on the family's Facebook pages or anything.

It's a really stupid and dangerous precedent to be setting, in my opinion.

Wholeheartedly agree with that. A very worrying thing. Imagine in a few more years if it continues like that.

The bleedin' report button on boards will go direct to the feckin' guards.

Rayne Wooney

chatterpillar wrote: »

I'm shocked that yer man was even brought to court because of the Facebook thing - never mind being jailed for it.

Presumably this fella will lose his job (if he has one) - if not, he'll be pretty much unemployable. For making a crap joke, on his own Facebook page?! The punishment way exceeds the "crime" - destroying his life, over making some stupid joke.

I assume that this is the first case of its kind - how was he even to know? What law was he breaking, for that matter? It's completely wrong.

I wouldn't be as insensitive as to make jokes about this little girl, but I've made (and laughed at) some fairly distasteful jokes in my time. Where do you draw the line?!

What about the hundreds/thousands of people all over England who have posted Madeleine McCann jokes to their Facebook (in fact, I'm pretty sure there were Facebook pages set up just for this.) Princess Diana jokes. Michael Jackson jokes. "Dead baby" jokes. Those crappy "why did the girl fall off the swing" jokes. Are people who made these jokes all going to be at risk of being jailed for it, now? As I said, where do you draw the line?

For the record, I don't think I've ever found any of the above-mentioned jokes funny. But humour is subjective. If I'm uncomfortable with someone else's sense of humour, I'll probably avoid being in that person's company (or, in this case, I'd not be friends with them on Facebook.) You can't control what people do and don't find funny. He wasn't harming anyone, it's not like he was posting it on the family's Facebook pages or anything.

It's a really stupid and dangerous precedent to be setting, in my opinion.

I believe he is unemployed.

The police charged him with breaching Section 27 of the Communications Act, namely sending a public electronic communication which is grossly offensive.
At the end of the day, that is the law, and he has broken it.

I will say he was very unlucky, the judge made an example of him.

steve9859

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

I will say he was very unlucky, the judge made an example of him.

I don't really have a problem with it. A few more examples are made, and people might start thinking twice about posting and twittering that kind of stuff. It's about time some boundaries of behaviour were set, just the same as there are behavioural boundaries when you're walking down the street. The Internet shouldn't be some place where anything goes.

They need to track down some of the people involved in some of the tragic on-line bullying cases recently as well, and throw the book at them

Rayne Wooney

steve9859 wrote: »

I don't really have a problem with it. A few more examples are made, and people might start thinking twice about posting and twittering that kind of stuff. It's about time some boundaries of behaviour were set, just the same as there are behavioural boundaries when you're walking down the street. The Internet shouldn't be some place where anything goes.

They need to track down some of the people involved in some of the tragic on-line bullying cases recently as well, and throw the book at them

Yes they do but it can be hard to track them sometimes.

But some people are not even reading the facts correctly, this imbecile posted the sick 'joke' on his own Public Facebook page. Anyone of Facebook's 1 billion members could read this 'joke' and hundreds of people reported it before it was taken down. That's why he got the book thrown at him.

Latchy

steve9859 wrote: »

I don't really have a problem with it. A few more examples are made, and people might start thinking twice about posting and twittering that kind of stuff. It's about time some boundaries of behaviour were set, just the same as there are behavioural boundaries when you're walking down the street. The Internet shouldn't be some place where anything goes.

They need to track down some of the people involved in some of the tragic on-line bullying cases recently as well, and throw the book at them

Exactly , if lines and boundary's are not drawn somewhere then everybody is fair game to open abuse by people who get their kicks and rocks of by attention seeking trolling like this .

up for anything

He also wrote comments of a sexually explicit nature about the five-year-old

Bloody fool nearly deserves jail. If I were a member of the girl's family, I'd bide my time patiently.

Mickeroo

My name is URL wrote: »

He posted it on his own Facebook page. If he had posted it on a family member's page then I could understand the outrage. People will have had to go looking for the post just so they could be offended by it.

And the mob of 50 people that descended on the wrong address are guilty of a more serious crime than making a tasteless joke. Presumably they intended to dish out their own punishment.

His face has been plastered on the April Jones FB page too. The comments people the baying mob are posting on his picture are absolutely disgusting, it's a witch hunt, plain and simple. The ironic thing is they don't seem to realise what they're saying could land them in jail too if someone made a big deal about it.

lukesmom

The stupidity in this world is unbelievable.

My name is URL

The fact that the police have stated that he was arrested for 'his own safety' says all you need to know about the mentality and intelligence of those emotionally attached enough to the whole story that they'd react in such a way to a stupid Facebook post.

The media as usual are the real scumbags in all of this.

TeddyTedson

My name is URL wrote: »

The fact that the police have stated that he was arrested for 'his own safety' says all you need to know about the mentality and intelligence of those emotionally attached enough to the whole story that they'd react in such a way to a stupid Facebook post.

The media as usual are the real scumbags in all of this.

You're right Earl.
The media love these type of stories and watching the horror story unfold.

Why do newspapers never report good news stories on the main page! I would actually like to read about good news!

lukesmom

up for anything wrote: »

He also wrote comments of a sexually explicit nature about the five-year-old

Bloody fool nearly deserves jail. If I were a member of the girl's family, I'd bide my time patiently.

^ this

Agree with above.
If it was an offensive stupid joke fine but the fact that he was thick enough to put
5 year old girl & sexually explicit content together deserves the book thrown at him and I don't care how drunk he was. Been around drunk lads telling jokes, a lot of sexually explicit nature but NEVER about kids and sex.
Never ever.

ibarelycare

Jesus if that's the case I hope no Gardai have access to Nein 11 :rolleyes:

BorneTobyWilde

Why do people use there name on facebook?
I have facebook, And a user name
Geez,
People don't use there name here, Why there/?
Facebook is dangerous, People putting there name address phone numbers
I have fictional name, address and number
o did i break a rule,

heavyballs

Imo, there is too fine a line between Thick and Sick,this chap is defo more on the thick side but serving time is too much.

alphabeat

im glad the stupid pr1ck got jail , anyone that fcuking stupid deserves it.