Man jailed for offensive Facebook comments about April Jones

Matthew Woods has been jailed for 12 weeks for posting offensive comments on Facebook about missing 5 year old April Jones.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-19869710

What are your thoughts on this? Is a prison sentence appropriate for making such grossly offensive remarks, or does this represent a breach of this man's freedom of speech?

I'm interested to hear your opinions :smile:

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

ncsoftlover

This **** again?
UK is indeed turning into a police state.

Reply 2

jumpingjesusholycow

Bloody hell, jailed for a facebook comment?

Ugh, what is happening to civil liberties in this country? I mean, 'hooray, we're just as regressive as parts of the Middle-East!' :rolleyes:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 3

Wattsy

They were horrible jokes repugnant to a human being of sound mind, of course he deserves his punishment. The standing of any person willing to make these type of comments, particularly about missing children, at such a grossly inappropriate time, should be brought into serious disrepute. He should face the music for his horrendous comedic timing and lack of forethought for the feelings of others, particularly the family of April Jones at an extraordinarily testing time for them.

The above posters patently lack empathy, if it was their missing child being joked about I'm sure their feelings would differ. They would likely feel distraught that someone could show such insensitivity and disregard for the magnitude of the situation which the family finds themselves in.

Reply 4

Hylean

It was a public sphere, he should not have been jailed for it. He was representing anyone but himself. Whilst his view might be distasteful, they are no worse than many racist views aired on similar forums.

Reply 5

+ polarity -

Original post by Hylean

It seems it doesn't matter if it's not on Facebook :dontknow:

Reply 6

Greenlaner

So once again the police are wasting their time pursuing neckbeards who have said stupid things on the internet. Shouldn't they be directing their attentions to better things, like trying to find this little girl? Or trying to catch other child snatching scumbags?

Reply 7

Hylean

Original post by + polarity -

It seems it doesn't matter if it's not on Facebook :dontknow:

Which is why this ruling is a complete joke.

Reply 8

danny111

I'm scared of posting on facebook now. And Twitter. And TSR.

Seems like nowadays you will be jailed if you're a dickwad and stupid (as in by now people should understand you get jailed for internet comments). I mean I've met plenty of *******s who said horrible things and weren't jailed...

Reply 9

Negaduck

An absurd decision. Yes, this guy is a complete and utter moron and probably not a wonderful human being, but he is entitled to freedom of speech. I've heard much worse things than what this guy has said, in real life and on the internet.

If I made the same comments on TSR, would I be jailed?

Reply 10

electriic_ink

Does this mean that I should report all contributors of sickipedia.org to the police?

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 11

hamijack

While completely condemning his joke, I can't help be appalled that someone has been sent to jail for telling a joke. If someone made the same joke at their local pub what would happen? Nothing. But simply because it's on Facebook he's now got a criminal record and is spending 12 weeks in jail at the taxpayer's expense.

I also don't like the fact that our country now has laws prohibiting people saying offensive things. If we are unable to talk about offensive opinions how are we supposed to convince people to change them?

Reply 12

electriic_ink

Original post by hamijack

I also don't like the fact that our country now has laws prohibiting people saying offensive things. If we are unable to talk about offensive opinions how are we supposed to convince people to change them?

He was jailed for saying something GROSSLY offensive so saying something that's just offensive is still OK.

Reply 13

kiss_me_now9

Ridiculous. Whether or not you agree with the joke or find them funny is by the by, the heart of this story is that a man's life has been turned upside down by something he posted on a website. If it was something that was a threat to others, or inciting hatred, then fair enough. But a joke?

What next, people arrested for reposting racist jokes on twitter or facebook?

Reply 14

TheJ0ker

People need to chill out

Reply 15

hamijack

Original post by electriic_ink

He was jailed for saying something GROSSLY offensive so saying something that's just offensive is still OK.

That's crap. Who gets to decide what's GROSSLY offensive? Because to me it seems like the media If he'd made a joke about some other missing child who wasn't in the news then no-one would have cared. But simply because it's a cute little white girl who's missing and is a headline at the moment, it's deemed GROSSLY offensive. I've seen people make jokes about the Holocaust on Facebook. Where are their prosecutions? Isn't joking about the systematic slaughter of 11 million people more GROSSLY offensive than making a joke about one dead girl?

Reply 16

Palatial Veranda

Whilst his actions were reprehensible the legal approach to such matters is quite absurd and is riddled with inconsistencies.

Reply 17

That Bearded Man

Glad to see we don't have an American attitute to free speech - enshrining it im a constituition.

These were horrific remarks, hopefully it will act as a deterrent and they can stop.