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Out-Law News 1 min. read

Judges stalemate causes re-hearing in airport bomb 'joke' case


A man who claimed to have been joking when he tweeted that he was going to blow up an airport in England is to have a High Court appeal against the conviction he was served with re-heard after two judges could not agree on the verdict.

In 2010 Paul Chambers was fined £385, ordered to pay £600 in legal costs and found guilty of a criminal offence under the Communications Act over a posting he made on Twitter. Chambers' message read: "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"

Chambers has claimed the message was a joke, but a judge ruled that it was "menacing" and that it would have "alarmed" ordinary people who read it.

Under the Communications Act it is an offence if someone "sends by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character".

Chambers appealed the Doncaster Magistrates' Court findings to the Doncaster Crown Court but when it upheld the ruling he asked the High Court to overturn it. However, the two judges failed to agree on the issue, and have now ordered that three judges re-hear the case, according to a report by David Allen Green on the New Statesman website. Green is representing Chambers during the appeal.

"There is no new date set yet for the hearing," Green said in the report. "A split divisional court is exceptional, and it appears that this may be only the second time it has happened this century."

Chambers' case has become a rallying point for protesters who think that laws are being misused in a way that infringes on people's rights to free speech. Supporters have included Stephen Fry and comedian Al Murray.

Chambers' tweet was spotted by an off-duty member of airport staff and was reportedly not treated as a serious threat to the airport by security staff at the time. Chambers lost his job as a trainee accountant over the message.

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