Social Media Crime

In 2012, 653 people were charged out of 4908 ‘social media’ offences were reported. The Association with Chief Police Officers (ACPO), reckon that these figures demonstrate a new challenge for the authorities. Contrast with the 2008 figures where 46 were charged after 556 complaints. The conviction of Paul Chambers in 2010 for a Tweet about blowing up Robin Hood Airport, South Yorkshire and the subsequent successful appeal, has led to interim guidelines. These were issued just before Christmas.

The threshold each police force seems to treat this area with varies according to the different levels of resourcing. Greater Manchester Police took the highest number of people, 115, to court. Director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer QC has announced these new guidelines on how people who post offensive messages on Facebook and Twitter should be dealt with. He admitted that the CPS had made the wrong judgment call in the case of Paul Chambers. Again it’s the balance between free speech and criminal offensive language.

HS&Co are experienced criminal defence solicitors, specialising in the whole range of offences including sex crimes, child pornography crimes, computer and social networking crimes.

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Extreme Pornography and a Barrister Defendant

You have got to hand it to the CPS. It has become known on Twitter as the ‘Porntrial’ but after a week long trial at Kingston Crown Court, 50 years old barrister Simon Walsh was acquitted by the jury. The sexual acts found in his emails involved consenting adults and were legal. However, in their wisdom the CPS decided to prosecute under section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. This forbids possession of extreme pornography depicting acts which cause serious harm to the anus, breast or genitals. This was said to include personal proclivities such as “fisting.”  HS&Co believe that the Crown should not have prosecuted and that this whole area of law needs root and branch reforms. It is a modern development to entrust the CPS to use discretion not to prosecute in these predominantly private affairs.