[Closed] 18 weeks in Jail for trolling..

Now you've lost me captain, been at the communion wine again?

razor1548 - Member

To me this is the most frightening thing to have happened in the UK in my lifetime. It's official... we do not have freedom of speech

I was expecting some hysteria like this... We've never had "free speech", you could go to jail for things you said before now, this is no different. Libel, tort, breach of the peace, incitement, conspiracy, to name just a couple.

Why does this guy's jail sentence "frighten" you more than the Youtube Riot Inciters?

Interesting thread drift...maaaaaaaaaaaan 🙂

Yoss, was just pointing out that accuracy would have helped your cause!

Philly is a MASSIVE RACIST.
[img] [/img]

this is the most frightening thing to have happened in the UK in my lifetime

you better be very careful what you say on the internet.

Apparently having an opinion that strongly opposes the popular masses is an illegal act now

darcy, i've made it clear on this website before that its impossible for me to be racist because i've seen ladysmith live 3 times and once shared a bed with a turk.

what the turk lacks in height he makes up in enthusiasm.

Yoss, was just pointing out that accuracy would have helped your cause!

It was accurate flashy. I just went a step further than the poster, quite accurately I sense too.

Agree 100% with DD. Consequence is a boil that must be lanced. figuratively of course. Not with a pointy thing. 🙂

Fancy one of my Turkish massages Philly?

"Why does this guy's jail sentence "frighten" you more than the Youtube Riot Inciters? "

Absolutely right Northwind. I know that utter 'freedom of speech' is a bit of a myth and rightly so; actually being able to say anything anywhere with no consequences. Yes... very silly idea indeed.

It frightens me more because riot inciters were fairly likely to be trying to gather real people to go out and do real damage. I say 'likely' because there were probably a few armchair warriors doing the same who would never leave their safe flats and their Xboxes let alone travel as far as the local town centre.

This truly makes me fear that we cannot speak our minds and comment on a pseudo tragedy. You know the kind... where the media says 'everyone in the UK is devastated...'. Some of us weren't particularly devastated and sometimes the media is full of utter cocknockery when far more important things are happening near and far. Yet a lot of grief hijackers jump on anything they can get their rocks off to and along with the afore mentioned modern comedians, I think it is rather fair game to take the piss out of it all.

The guy who was jailed went far for sure, but I firmly believe it is wrong to prosecute him for doing so. Banning people from using the internet on the other hand I am all for. 😉

Malicious Communications Act 1988 section 1
(This is the wording of this section as amended by Section 43 Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001. It applies to offences committed from the 11th May 2001 onwards)
(1) Any person who sends to another person
(a) a letter, electronic communication or article of any description which conveys
(i) a message which is indecent or grossly offensive
(ii) a threat or
(iii) information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender or
(b) any article or electronic communication which is, in whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature,
is guilty of an offence if his purpose

yossarian -

Agree 100% with DD. Consequence is a boil that must be lanced.

[img] [/img]

😉

edit - DD only if you dress up like natalie portman.

"did you miss the actual terrorist attacks we have had in this country and yet you think this is more frightening"

No.

Bizzare judgement - I bet he is out on appeal. diminished responsibility

Philly actually enjoys being lanced.

In a lay-by.

In Newbury.

i'm inclined to agree TJ, if he is aspergic then it wouldn't surprise me if somebody argued his diagnosis means he will struggle to/be unable to understand the effect of his actions on other's emotions.

i'm unsure its completely true (always happy to be proved wrong by people who know the subject better though!), the aspergic guy i worked with definitely explained away his behaviour with that reasoning and his team seemed to back it up. long 1:1 sessions with him left me thinking he had some idea/awareness though. not my area of expertise though, only a limited experience to draw from!

This not just a case of somebody pleading guilty and being stupid enough to take any punishment handed down by the courts? Surely it'd be impossible for them to prove it was him that typed the words, easiest defence in the world must surely have been sorry I left my computer logged in at work or something...

And that's without even thinking up a decent case against jailing people for trolling, which is ridiculous in itself and must be pretty easy to make a case against it...

TandemJeremy - Member

Bizzare judgement - I bet he is out on appeal. diminished responsibility

Diminished responsibility is a partial defence to Murder only.

Behave mate - tactical Aspergers gets short shrift in the court room and was rightly booted into the weeds by the Judge. There's no way this sort of behaviour (grossly ridiculing the bereaved) comes anywhere near being mitigated by an Aspergers condition.

I don't know if it was a true playing of the Aspergers card tbf, though, ie integral to the defence. His brief might have just mentioned it in a please-don't-send-him-to-Wakefield fashion. Crash course in communication available at that institution for the lad if he ever ended up there.

Diminished responsibility is a partial defence to Murder only.

every day's a school day 😀

It is - and please start your sentences with a capital 🙂

friend in reading just posted this up on facebook:

( http://www.****/news/article-2036935/Sean-Duffy-Internet-troll-taunted-teenager-deaths-jailed-18-WEEKS.html)

quite a lot of detail about the trolling.. really unplaasant read! 🙁

Duffy's lawyer Lance Whiteford said he could offer no mitigation but that Asperger's and alcohol abuse went some way to explaining why he committed the offences.
Duffy was diagnosed from a young age with Asperger's and had received specialist education because of his condition. But it had led to years of bullying and isolation, including moving out of his parents' home, Mr Whiteford told the court.
He added: 'In terms of mitigation there is none. I cannot imagine the trauma and anxiety caused to the families by these horrible, despicable offences.

'[b]The condition leaves the absence of theory of the mind, quintessentially the ability that makes us human.[/b]
'He just wasn't aware how horrible the effect was going to be on those who looked at what he had done.

the bold bit sits really uncomfortably for me!

EDIT - sorry deluded, i have to save all my capital letters for work, can't spare them by bandying them about willy nilly on forums!

"EDIT - sorry deluded, i have to save all my capital letters for work, can't spare them by bandying them about willy nilly on forums! "

I haven't tested this out so I might be wrong. I have always imagined it is more difficult to change your typing style from childlike to grownup between times and have to remember to press the shift key at the beginning of a sentence ONLY when you are in a particular geographical location than just to do it all the time. 🙂

Again... I may be very wrong.

its easy razor 🙂 the same way i wouldn't swear or discuss the merits of boobs at work but i would with friends... that little unconscious switch deep down in my brain and i alter my approach to the setting 🙂

its a compliment, i see you fine fellows and felowettes as friends so i bring my casual approach... on threads where i have to put on my professional hat my posts tend to end up full of capitals 8)

I have no idea what you lot are talking about. Is it someones job to go looking for nasty letters on the internet or is it just people reporting stuff they deem offensive.
Does someone from singletrack have to read all this rubbish we spout and rate it on some kind of naughty scale? I noticed gypsy threads being closed. If some racist stuff gets through do STW get it in the neck from the man?
Just wondered.

"Is it someones job to go looking for nasty letters on the internet or is it just people reporting stuff they deem offensive."

To my best understanding of it all... just don't post anything that might offend anyone on facebook is about the size of it. 🙂

Potential employers will search for your details on facebook. Apparently (tm) the DWP may use it and so might insurance companies.

I would not make a facebook account with my real name even for a laugh! 🙂

I don't get this at all..I think it's because I simply don't get Facebook, blogging or tweeting.
I think if you decide to put your private grief in a public arena like Facebook then there will always be someone who responds in this fashion: Why would you even be suprised?

I would not be surprised if i left my front door open and I got robbed but a criminal act has still occurred.

A friends son has Aspergers. He's a nice kid but he has has no friends, it took several months of me visiting his dad before he'd say hello and goodbye to me. He did the special school thing, probably more because the normal school didn't want him. He's left school now and knows no one locally. He went to college and they couldn't be bothered with him. His next plan for his life is the army, which might work for him.
Or he could drift along friendless and jobless until he commits some petty offence and gets banged up.
This guy will be out in 9 months think he'll be better for it?

This guy will be out in 9 months think he'll be better for it?

interesting question, boundary setting was a huge part of the care-plans for the aspergic guy i worked with, 'you shouldnt do that, if you do then this will happen to you' was easier for the guy to understand than 'you shouldnt do that cos it hurts patients B's feelings'...

as i said above though, not my area of expertise so my experiences are limited and not up to date!

Jinges Junkyard..had a party on the day of Diana's funeral: Nothing against her in particular, just couldn't bear all the outpourings of deep sentiment from people who were falling over themselves to climb onto the emotional rollercoaster; it just seemed so false.
Have I broken the law too? 😥

I think there's a world of difference between posting something offensive about a dead person when it's being discussed on a random forum, and actively posting something that has been set up by and intended to commemorate that person by their friends and family.

As for the whole 'Free Speech' argument and the spurious comments about Muslims - on Rememberance day a couple of idiots chanted through the two minute silence and burnt some poppies. They were charged and found guilty in court too. So yeah, they had their freedom of speech stomped on like the poor troll who liked to make fun of dead children to their grieving families. Call me a fascist, but I can't really bring myself to sympathise...

"Call me a fascist, but I can't really bring myself to sympathise... "

That I won't do... but the population would be a little wiser if you learned what the word 'random' means. 🙂

"Jinges Junkyard..had a party on the day of Diana's funeral: Nothing against her in particular, just couldn't bear all the outpourings of deep sentiment from people who were falling over themselves to climb onto the emotional rollercoaster; it just seemed so false."

Never has there been so much outright hypocrisy in the media! People who were calling her an idiot one week were falling over themselves to kiss the ground she once walked on the next.

Lies and lies and more lies on top of them don't heal any wounds. 🙂

DezB - Member
I wonder how he would have got his kicks without the internet?

"Well, there's this interesting material called 'paper', made from cellulose fibre derived from trees. It actually allows a person to make marks on it with a suitable stylus-like implement, called a 'pen', or 'pencil'.
Using the two together makes it possible to send offensive, upsetting remarks to a particular recipient. "

Apparently with a bit of work on the 'tech' (for the ****nuts who can't cope with the simple word 'technology') we will soon be able to talk to each other in person and call each other on the phone too. 🙂

Indeed... maybe the internet is not the cause of all 'evils' afterall! 😉

Indeed... maybe the internet is not the cause of all 'evils' afterall!

I'd love to know what the cause of you was.

The individual obviously doesn't get out and is a sick ****. He also looks scarily like alot of STW'ers 😆

Another one

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-14915030

This could get interesting. There's millions of this type of stuff out there on the web.

deadlydarcy - Member

I'd love to know what the cause of you was.

Well... When a man and a woman love each other very much, they give each other a special cuddle...

Well... When a man and a woman love each other very much, they give each other a special cuddle...

Well I never. Ta very muchos. 😀

A couple of interesting points about this case.
AFAIK Duffy was not the only person to post sick comments but was the only one charged because his ISP provided the police with his details So presumably the other ISPs didn't and so the others got off? So a determined/clever troller could simply use a suitable ISP,probably overseas?If Duffy had not plead guilty and had money for a good lawyer I doubt he would have been jailed.
How come this law isn't used to imprison dangerous stalkers who regularly harrass and post threats to ex partners ?
How often do we hear the police say they were powerless to intervene in the sadly all too common cases which end in murder?