TWO teenagers put “lets firebomb Wrexham” on their Facebook sites at the height of the riots in Britain, a court heard.
There had never been any intention to start a riot, none of their Facebook friends took them seriously, and the one response was humorous banter
But their “bad joke” was in “extremely bad taste” and had a profound effect on them and their families, Flintshire Magistrates Court in Mold was told.
Thomas Hughes, 19, of Hawarden Road and Jack Johnston Lewis, 19, of High Street, both Caergwrle, were put on a week’s curfew and were then locked up for five weeks after they were initially charged with inciting a riot.
They were later released on bail when the charge was dropped and replaced with an offence under the Telecommunications Act of sending a menacing message.
District Judge Andrew Shaw said if he had been treating the case afresh he would have sentenced them both to three months detention. However, they had already been in custody, had been released on bail and twice attended court expecting to be sent back into custody.
In the circumstances he placed them on a one month community order under which they will be tagged and must remain indoors between 8pm and 8am for two weeks.
“I am sentencing you on the basis of immature and foolish comments rather than a serious attempt to incite a riot,” he said.
Judge Shaw said he appreciated the consequences for the defendants had been dramatic and they had already suffered a substantial penalty.
They had served the equivalent of a 10 week sentence.
The judge said timing was everything, because they had posted their comments “in the heat of the fire”, in the middle of a time when there was potential for far greater disorder.
Justin Espie, prosecuting, said national police intelligence officers were monitoring social networking sites using key words such as “riot” and the defendants’ Facebook sites were highlighted.
They effectively suggested they should firebomb Wrexham although no specific meeting place was arranged and no arrangements were made to get petrol.
Hughes had 1,333 Facebook friends and Lewis 893 who would have seen the comments and the matter was taken very seriously in the context of the troubles at the time but the prosecution later reviewed the charge.
Brian Jackson, for Lewis, said it was clearly not a serious attempt to incite a riot but a stupid and immature joke – banter in bad taste.
He was a foolish young man who in the privacy of his own room, while on Facebook, had put comments which he immediately regretted and which had been removed before his arrest.
“He has not tried to start a riot,” he said, but he accepted people reading it might have found it menacing and been upset.
Lewis co-operated fully and was full of remorse.
Paul Abraham, for Hughes, said they had been immature and idiotic comments which were intended as a joke, not an intention to incite anything. No one took it seriously.
The comments had been in “massively poor taste” and the timing was very bad.
His client, who had no previous convictions, had lost his college course. It had devastated his family, and he had even lost his place in a motocross team which was sensitive to how negative publicity could affect their sponsorship.
“This had a profound effect. He has learnt his lesson,” he said.