The Cellar - What the Hell is Going on in the UK?

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What the Hell is Going on in the UK?

Mark Seddon, in Blackpool, sent his ex-girlfriend a whatsapp message stating her new boyfriend is a "Fat-bellied codhead".
He was arrested, convicted of "sending a grossly offensive electronic message", and fined £500 + £85 costs + £50 victims surcharge. That $902 folks!
What the fuck is wrong with you people? It's not like it was posted on the net, or printed in the paper(until now), where it could embarrass her... even though it shouldn't. It's a fucking text message, push the button, poof, it's gone. Even Canadians aren't this bad, you're becoming Italian.
link http://cellar.org/2015/avatar1192_1.gif

Apparently, they take their cod seriously.

Asks the guy from the country willing to legislate against transsexuals but not guns in the name of protecting the children........

Oh, it's the Won't somebody think of the children, strawman, is it?
Don't make me tear up your papers. :rtfm: http://cellar.org/2012/bwekk.gif

As long as the strawman uses the gender appropriate bathroom, apparently, as defined before he was cut.....

Be careful what you write before you're arrested and fined $902, of course cancelling your trip to California. :p:

Kind of surreal when you consider how difficult it is over here to get police to take serious trolling and online stalking and death threats seriously. The amount of times I see in the news that some woman has been killed by her former partner after she's reported him to the police several times for harrassing her with abusive texts and messages, it staggers me that this seemingly innoccuous example led to prosecution at all.

Maybe there was more to the story than we are hearing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sexobon (Post 958853)

Apparently, they take their cod seriously.

In Cod we trust. ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanaC (Post 958874)

This.

Sent by thought transference

I had a feeling it's one of those bizarre cases, not representative of normal, but they keep popping up. Like the woman fined for not going with her kid to the bus stop she could see from her window. The articles about this case say the breakup had been rocky, and he said he was paying back money loaned by her mother, but little else. Maybe he was sending hundreds of messages a day, but if this was the worst, I don't think the charge is just. Does she get the £50 victims surcharge?

The video of that incident is interesting. I can't find a clip on youtube, but it was shown on a recent BBC doc. She barely reacts - some of the horses were spooked, including hers, and there were security people converging on the shooter, but she gets her horse under control almost immediately and then continues. It's pretty impressive given they didn't know it was a blank-firing gun until later.

From wiki:

Quote:

On 13 June 1981, Sarjeant joined the crowds for Trooping the Colour, finding a spot near the junction between The Mall and Horseguards Avenue. When the Queen came past riding her 19-year-old horse Burmese, Sarjeant quickly fired six blanks from his starting revolver. The horse was momentarily startled but the Queen brought her under control; she was unharmed. Lance Corporal Galloway (Scots Guards), Lance Corporal McNeill (Scots Guards), Sergeant John Woodcock (Metropolitan Police Service) and John Heasman (St. John Ambulance) quickly reacted and subdued Sarjeant, who told them "I wanted to be famous. I wanted to be a somebody".[2][4]

The attack happened fifteen minutes after the Queen's departure from Buckingham Palace. Immediately the Sovereign's Escort was ordered by the Gold Stick-in-Waiting to "close up" around Her Majesty. The Queen regained control of her mount, and continued to Horse Guards Parade.

Quote:

Sarjeant became the first person since 1966 to be prosecuted under the Treason Act 1842,[6] and was brought to trial before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, on 14 September 1981. He was charged with an offence under Section Two of the Treason Act in that he "wilfully discharged at or near Her Majesty the Queen a gun with the intent to alarm or distress Her Majesty."[7] Sarjeant pleaded guilty, and Lord Lane, sentencing him to five years' imprisonment, said that "the public sense of outrage must be marked. You must be punished for the wicked thing you did".[8] Sarjeant appealed against the length of the sentence but the appeal was refused.[9]

He was released after three years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Sarjeant

[eta] I am a bit bemused as to why it was relevant to this thread though?

Well, it was a WTH situation...

And it was in the UK...

I'm still trying to figure what the University of Kentucky has to do with any of this...