Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

A Sheriff Court in Perth, Scotland, has passed the first sentence in the UK for sending offensive text messages to a mobile phone. Callum Boyce, a 23 year-old farmworker from Milnathort was yesterday fined £100 for sending a series of insults to a former friend’s phone after finding him alone with his wife in their house. Mr Boyce’s wife said that Peter Buller had been aggravating her and suggesting that she should have sex with him.

Mr Boyce admitted that on 31st July he sent four grossly offensive messages by phone of an indecent, obscene or menacing character. He was charged under the Telecommunications Act 1984 which prohibits obscene messages by telephone. One of the messages read, “Baldy pervert, you have wrecked our marriage, so I am going to break your neck.” Mr Buller called the police who then arrested Mr Boyce.

According to estimates, 500 million text messages per month are sent on UK mobile phones.

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.