Twitter intimidation not taken seriously enough by police, says Stella Creasy
|
Version 0 of 1. The Labour MP Stella Creasy has said that online intimidation is not being taken sufficiently seriously by police despite the jailing of a “Twitter troll” who threatened to rape her. The 18-week sentence imposed on Peter Nunn, 33, from Bristol, on Monday is one of the longer terms of imprisonment handed to anyone in England for posting menacing messages on social media. Earlier this month a Scottish man was given 16 months for obscene and racist comments made on Twitter. In a victim impact statement read out to City of London magistrates court, Creasy, 33, the MP for Walthamstow, said Nunn had caused “misery to her and her family” and led her to install a panic button in her home. Prosecutor Alison Morgan said the messages had had a “substantial” effect on Creasy, who felt “increasing concern that individuals were seeking not only to cause her distress but also to cause her real harm, which led her to fear for her own safety”. The MP was targeted after she supported a high-profile feminist campaign launched by Caroline Criado-Perez to put a picture of Jane Austen on the £10 note. Nunn began bombarding Creasy with abusive messages last July shortly after the Bank of England revealed that Austen would be the new face of the £10 note. He retweeted a threatening message which read: “You better watch your back, I’m going to rape your arse at 8pm and put the video all over.” Some of his messages were sent from an account called eatcreasynow. Another message read: “Best way to rape a witch, try and drown her first then just when she’s gagging for air that’s when you enter.” Criado-Perez, who was also subjected to Twitter abuse by Nunn, said she thought the charge under section 127 of the 2003 Communications Act – which outlaws messages that are “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character” – was not the right one. His campaign, she suggested, amounted to stalking. Nunn, a part-time delivery driver, showed no emotion as he was jailed. The court heard he had ambitions of studying for a law degree, and he claimed he sent the messages to exercise his right to freedom of speech and to “satirise” the issue of online trolling. He was also made the subject of a restraining order banning him from contact with Creasy or Criado-Perez. After the case, Creasy said: “Today’s sentence for Peter Nunn is a step forward in recognising the distress and fear online harassment can cause. “We now need to ensure our police and criminal justice services are better trained to identify the risks anyone receiving threats faces – whether these are made on or offline – so that we can protect those being stalked. “Above all, we need to send a clear message that it isn’t for anyone to put up with being harassed via any medium – this is an old crime taking a new form online and should be treated as such.” Lyndon Harris, a barrister who specialises in sentencing practice, suggested that 18 weeks was not surprising even though it was at the upper end of magistrates’ sentencing guidelines. “Nunn’s sentence isn’t out of step with previous sentences for similar offences,” he said. But Dave Banisar, senior legal counsel with the free speech organisation Article 19, said: “Clearly these were very unpleasant remarks but the standard should be that what is good for online should also hold true for the real world. “There’s a longstanding problem that it’s still being treated as a new technology. If someone had stood up and made such remarks in a public meeting, he would have been ejected, but would he have been sentenced to 18 weeks in prison – although I accept there was an element of stalking in this.” In the recent Scottish case, prosecuted under different legislation, Abdul Hafes said Kurds and Shias in Iraq should die and that he wanted to join Islamic State fighters. |