In the Dock: CPS is fighting back against on-line intimidation
The rapid development of the internet and communications technology in recent years has brought dangers as well as benefits. Anyone who makes threats to you on the internet could be committing a criminal offence. It's against the law to use the phone system - which includes the internet - to cause alarm or distress and the CPS will prosecute those who do so.
'Cyberbullying', 'cyberstalking' and 'trolling' involve the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated and hostile behaviour by an individual or group intended to harm others. This type of harassment can take place through the misuse of email, social networking sites, chat rooms and other forums facilitated by technology.
Last year, Sean Duffy, an internet 'troll' who targeted Facebook tribute pages and posted videos on YouTube to mock the deaths of teenagers, was jailed for 18 weeks. He was also given a five-year antisocial behaviour order prohibiting him from accessing social networking sites.
Among Duffy's victims was Lauren Drew, a 14-year-old who died from an epilepsy attack at her home in Gloucester in January 2011. Duffy posted offensive and upsetting images relating to her death and for Mother's Day created a YouTube video with a picture of a coffin saying "Happy Mothers Day".
On 11 April this year, Frank Zimmerman was convicted at Gloucester Magistrates' court of sending threatening a email to the Conservative MP Louise Mensch. In the email, he told her she would have to choose which one of her three children would die. In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mrs Mensch said: "I was terrified on behalf of my children." Zimmerman is scheduled to be sentenced on 7 June at Cheltenham Magistrates court.
The 60 year old Gloucester man first made contact with Mrs Mensch on Twitter using a pseudonym, claiming he had information about Piers Morgan and the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. She sent him her personal email address and it was to that account Zimmerman sent the threatening message.
Commenting on the outcome, Mr Gaon Hart of the Crown Prosecution Service Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division said: "The right to freedom of speech is accompanied by laws that protect individuals from those who seek to abuse that freedom and use the anonymity of email or twitter accounts to hide from the fear that they cause.
"Zimmerman attempted to use pseudonyms and other methods to wage a campaign of fear against a high profile person, thinking he was safe from detection. He was wrong. This should be a salutary lesson for anyone who considers they are above the law because they threaten others through a computer rather than on the streets."
