Twitter Joke Trial
| Chambers v Director of Public Prosecutions | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Court | High Court of Justice (Queen's Bench Division) |
| Full case name | Paul Chambers v Director of Public Prosecutions |
| Decided | 27 July 2012 |
| Citation(s) | [2012] EWHC 2157 (QB) |
| Transcript(s) | High Court transcript |
| Case history | |
| Appealed from | Doncaster Magistrates' Court |
| Case opinions | |
| The message was not objectively menacing; the conviction was therefore quashed. | |
| Court membership | |
| Judges sitting |
Lord Judge CJ Owen J Griffith Williams J |
| Keywords | |
R v Paul Chambers (appealed to the High Court as Chambers v Director of Public Prosecutions), popularly known as the Twitter Joke Trial, was a United Kingdom legal case centred on the conviction of a man under the Communications Act 2003 for posting a joke about destroying an airport to Twitter, a message which police regarded as "menacing". The conviction was widely condemned as a miscarriage of justice, and was appealed three times, the conviction being quashed as a result of the third appeal.
During late December 2009 and early January 2010, cold weather had resulted in considerable disruption across northern England. Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire was one of many airports which was forced to cancel flights. On 6 January 2010, an intending traveller, Paul Chambers, then aged 28, who was planning to fly to Northern Ireland to meet his then girlfriend (later wife), posted a message on Twitter:
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!!
A week later, an off-duty manager at the airport found the message whilst doing an unrelated computer search. The airport management considered the message to be "not credible" as a threat, but contacted the police anyway. Chambers was arrested by anti-terror police at his office, his house was searched and his mobile phone, laptop and desktop hard drive were confiscated. He was later charged with "sending a public electronic message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character contrary to the Communications Act 2003". On 10 May, he was found guilty at Doncaster magistrates' court, fined £385 and ordered to pay £600 costs. He lost his job as a consequence.
A number of legal commentators and celebrities criticised the conviction and called for it to be overturned. They include journalist Nick Cohen, who drew comparison with Milan Kundera's anti-communist novel The Joke; television writer Graham Linehan; and the comedian and television presenter Stephen Fry, who offered to pay Chambers' fine and subsequent legal bills.
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