An 18 year old in the UK has becomes the first person to be jailed in the UK for bullying over the internet.
18 year old Keeley Houghton has been given three months in a young offenders’ institute and a five month restraining order after threatening to kill someone on Facebook, the first person in the UK to be jailed for cyber-bullying. Houghton claimed that she wrote the messages late at night while drunk and had no memory of it, but it was quickly shown that that was not the case.
The comments were posted at 4pm on the 12th of July and remained on Houghton’s Facebook page for 24 hours before being removed. The police became involved when Ms Houghton approached the victim Emily Moore while she was out with her boyfriend, ostensibly to apologize, but then became threatening when her apology was rebuffed. Houghton has two prior convictions for bullying Ms Moore, including one in 2005 for assaulting her on the way home from school which led to Houghton’s expulsion.
While Houghton appeared contrite during her hearing and admitted her involvement, District Judge Bruce Morgan was unimpressed, saying: “Since Emily Moore was 14 you have waged compelling threats and violent abuse towards her … Bullies are by their nature cowards, in school and society. The evil, odious effects of being bullied stay with you for life … On this day you did an act of gratuitous nastiness to satisfy your own twisted nature.”
Source: The Telegraph
