Facebook flashplodders lose appeal against 4-yr jail stint
'Abuse of modern technology for criminal purposes'
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Appeals brought by two young men nabbed for inciting violent disorder via Facebook during the England riots in August have been dismissed.
The Court of Appeal threw out the sentence disputes this morning.
Jordan Blackshaw, 20, of Vale Road in Marston near Northwich, was sentenced to four years in jail after appearing before a judge at Chester Crown Court on 16 August.
Jordan Blackshaw
He had created a Facebook "Event" entitled "Smash d[o]wn in Northwich Lootin", but later claimed it was a "misplaced" and "misguided" joke.
Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, of Richmond Avenue, Warrington, was handed the same punishment in August after pleading guilty under sections 44 and 46 of the Serious Crime Act.
He had created a Facebook Page calling on people to "riot" on 10 August. His message went out to 400 contacts on the site, but he took down the page the following morning, claiming the post had been a joke.
No rioting took place as a result of either Blackshaw's or Sutcliffe-Keenan's foolish posts on Facebook.
Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan
Despite that, their appeals were rejected today, which means their sentences, four years apiece in the slammer, will be served.
"We are unimpressed with the suggestion that in each case the appellant did no more than make the appropriate entry in his Facebook," noted the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, who was sitting with Sir John Thomas and Lord Justice Leveson at the Court of Appeal in London.
The judgement continued:
Neither went from door to door looking for friends or like-minded people to join up with him in the riot. All that is true. But modern technology has done away with the need for such direct personal communication.
It can all be done through Facebook or other social media. In other words, the abuse of modern technology for criminal purposes extends to and includes incitement of very many people by a single step.
Indeed it is a sinister feature of these cases that modern technology almost certainly assisted rioters in other places to organise the rapid movement and congregation of disorderly groups in new and unpoliced areas.
Blackshaw's and Sutcliffe-Keenan's lawyers had unsuccessfully argued that the sentences meted out to them were "excessive". ®
COMMENTS
gotta love the UK....
say riot and get 4 years. steal some trainers, 4 years.
be corrupt, let your best mate in on secret gov. talks. take backhanders..... and you dont even get the sack!
no wonder the youth feel disaffected and so let down by authority. the watchmen are running riot and we cant do anything about it.
Proportionate?
A custodial sentence was probably warranted, but I can't help but wonder if it's a proportionate response, when they're getting harsher sentences than people who actually did do some rioting.
"Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, who was sitting with Sir John Thomas"
With such names reminiscent of a faked-up Victorian-era petition, I guess it fits in nicely with a replay of the "Victorian values" farce for those of you old enough to remember. "The accused did look at me in a foul manner using his Facebook and so I sentence him to transportation to the colonies!"
If the public prosecutor bothered to actually convict and sentence the richest pilferers in society instead of these clowns, the taxpayer wouldn't have to take a pure loss on entertaining them for the duration of their sentence: just keeping the high-end thieves from the financial industry and politics from having their head in the trough would easily pay for their time at HMQ's pleasure.
But no, why do that when one can make some ill-conceived conservative fantasy a reality *and* have someone else pay for it all?
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