Twitter Bomb Joker’s Sentence Upheld

Paul Chambers, who was convicted of “menace” for a Tweet which talked of blowing up an airport, has lost his appeal against the conviction and £1,000 fine.

In January, Chambers, an accountant, Tweeted that he might blow up Robin Hood airport near Doncaster, in frustration that it was snowed in, preventing him from visiting an online acquaintance in Belfast. To his dismay, the authorities took the post seriously, and arrested him. He was suspended from his job and eventually found guilty of “menace” in May.

Appeal dismissed on every count

Despite widespread criticism – and frank disbelief – of the vertict, Judge Jacqueline Davies dismissed the appeal on every counting, ruling that his Tweet had caused “a great inconvenience”, adding: “The words in the message speak for themselves and they were sent at a time when the security threat to this country was substantial.”

In his defence, Chambers said that “no one in a month of Sundays” would take the Tweet seriously, and no-one has come forward to say they really did believe at any stage that the threat might be real.

Legal blogger David Allen Green called this case “one of the most significant cases of our time”, citing the “horrifying lack of common sense or proportion shown by any of those who dealt with the matter”, that he had “no intention of sending a menacing communication”, and that the conviction and its effect on his career could ruin his life.

According to Green, if Chambers is guilty because of tweeting the particular words in his Tweet, even if he did not have any menacing intention, then so is everyone else who has repeated them.

To remind readers, what Chambers said was: “Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week… otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!”