1984
Validated Poster
Joined: 09 Aug 2011
Posts: 29
Location: UK
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 Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:11 pm Post subject: Riots - 2 jailed 4 years each for Facebook incitement |
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I think this is extreme.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/16/facebook-riot-calls-men-jaile d
Facebook riot calls earn men four-year jail terms amid sentencing outcry
Sentences handed out in Chester as lawyers and civil rights groups express alarm about 'disproportionate' punishments
Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent, Helen Carter and Helen Clifton
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 August 2011 19.37 BST
Jordan Blackshaw, who was sentenced to four years in a young offenders institution for inciting riots via Facebook. Photograph: Cheshire police
Two men who posted messages on Facebook inciting other people to riot in their home towns have both been sentenced to four years in prison by a judge at Chester crown court.
Jordan Blackshaw, 20, set up an "event" called Smash Down in Northwich Town for the night of 8 August on the social networking site but no one apart from the police, who were monitoring the page, turned up at the pre-arranged meeting point outside a McDonalds restaurant. Blackshaw was promptly arrested.
Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, of Latchford, Warrington, used his Facebook account in the early hours of 9 August to design a web page entitled The Warrington Riots. The court was told it caused a wave of panic in the town. When he woke up the following morning with a hangover, he removed the page and apologised, saying it had been a joke. His message was distributed to 400 Facebook contacts, but no rioting broke out as a result.
Sentencing Blackshaw to four years in a young offenders institution, Judge Elgan Edwards QC said he had committed an "evil act". He said: "This happened at a time when collective insanity gripped the nation. Your conduct was quite disgraceful and the title of the message you posted on Facebook chills the blood.
"You sought to take advantage of crime elsewhere and transpose it to the peaceful streets of Northwich. The idea revolted many right thinking members of society. No one actually turned up due to the prompt and efficient actions of police in using modern policing."
Sutcliffe-Keenan, the judge said, "caused a very real panic" and "put a very considerable strain on police resources in Warrington". He praised Cheshire police for their "modern and clever policy" of infiltrating the website. |
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