Airport joke threat Twitter case to be heard again
Published May 28 2012, 14:49 BST | By Andrew Laughlin
© PA Images
The 27-year-old, from Doncaster but now lives in Northern Ireland, was convicted in May 2011 of sending a "menacing electronic communication".
On his Twitter page, Chambers had posted: "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your s**t together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"
After being found guilty at Doncaster Magistrates Court last year, an initial appeal was dismissed, leading Chambers's legal team to escalate the challenge to the High Court.
Today, a two-judge Divisional Court of the High Court has ordered a new hearing to go ahead, after being unable to reach an agreed decision on the so-called "Twitter Joke Trial".
David Allen Green, the lawyer representing Chambers, said that a date has not yet been set for the second hearing.
"A split divisional court is exceptional, and it appears that this may be only the second time it has happened this century," he added.
A campaign in support of Chambers has attracted various high-profile Twitter users, including Stephen Fry, Graham Linehan and Al Murray. A support fund has also been established to help pay for his legal fees as he fights the case.
Its not often reported that his "tweet" was actually sent to the airport itself, its no different from sending a threat in the post. If your the person covering communications at the airport, are you going to turn a bind eye to it? If not then it would go up the line and take up more and more peoples time, eventually it will cost the taxpayer money in Police time. He deserves all he gets.
June 15th 2012 at 1:45pm
BRB going to blow up a ...... BALLOON!! ....
May 29th 2012 at 2:25am
davey im going to send you to prison, a person could be on that balloon, and you could have killed him, :O
June 4th 2012 at 1:10pm
Yes, the police must investigate threats....but if they had done their job properly this would have been shown to be a false threat...maybe he could be prosecuted for wasting police time, but to be honest they have wasted enough of thier own on this case to warrant that null and void in my opinion....Time to make this mess go away, drop the case, let the guy off, tell him sternly not to do it again and lets all get back to real life and let this soap opera farce die away. Or shall we waste another $1M on a pointless case when there is little enough money in the system? What I am trying to say is common sense should prevail, in this case, it has not and that is to the shame of the police, the CPS (whom I assume are involved) and the rest of the judiciary.
May 28th 2012 at 5:22pm(+2 likes)
Alas, there is no case to drop now as he has already been convicted and is serving his sentence. the onus is now on him to appeal, which he has tried once but the panel of 2 judges couldn't make up their minds as to whether he should have been found guilty in the first place and so we are onto a re hearing of the appeal in front of 3 judges. Quite how this has got this far is beyond anyone's understanding. if two high court judges aren't sure, then logic dictates that the case wasn't that sound to begin with.
June 4th 2012 at 12:44am
I guess we are not allowed free speech or able to make jokes anymore like I am going to kick over a sandcastle on Camber Sands beach and then deface a picture of the Queen by drawing a top hat on her. Quick you better call the police
May 28th 2012 at 4:59pm(+2 likes)
dont kick over sandcastles, a child build that and if a child didnt, still dont do it, im the sandcastle police. and i can send you to prison as well as the guy above who waned to blow up a balloon, yes im the sand castle and balloon police. :D
June 4th 2012 at 1:11pm