British Man Given Prison Sentence for Facebook Death Threats Made to Tennessee High School Students

Reason

A British man has been sentenced to two years and four months in prison for posting death threats on the memorial Facebook pages set up for two Tennessee high school students who died in car accidents.

Because of the threats 3,000 students at Warren County High School missed school for a day.  

From UPI:

NEWCASTLE, England, July 9 (UPI) -- A British man who posted a threat on Facebook that forced the closing of some Tennessee schools will spend more than two years in jail, a judge ruled.

Judge James Cross of Crown Court in Newcastle, England sentenced Reece Elliot, 24, to two years and four months in prison for threatening to kill students at Tennessee's Warren County High School, the BBC reported Tuesday.

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Comments

[Auric Demonocles]

Re missing alt-text: It's okay, you're in America. Freedom of speech.

That guy is going to be feared in the slammer.

[Auric Demonocles]

I really need EDIT BUTTON! It could be interpreted in my first sentence that I am saying the missing alt-text is okay. Of course, I am saying nothing of the sort. I meant to imply that there is no need to fear putting the alt-text, as you won't be arrested for it's content here.

[NeonCat]

Given that he lives in the bastion of freedom that is England, how exactly did Reece plan to kill the teenage Tennesseans? Did Reece have a piece? (Sorry, I had to.)

From the Guardian article:
Elliott appeared at court dressed in a grey top and admitted one count of making a threat to kill and eight of sending grossly offensive messages. He has been held in custody since his arrest in February.

Using a false name, he wrote on a tribute page to Caitlin Talley, a 17-year-old girl at the Tennessee school who had died in a car accident in October: "My father has three guns. I'm planning on killing him first and putting him in a dumpster. Then I'm taking the motor and I'm going in fast. I'm gonna kill hopefully at least 200 before I kill myself. So you want to tell the deputy, I'm on my way."

Caitlin, a popular pupil at Warren County High, died in a car accident in October. On the commemorative website, Elliott wrote: "I'm glad the fat bitch is dead. Let's drink to drink driving. No-one gives a shit that she's dead, get over it. If I was there now I would rape you."

Given his use of "motor" and "drink driving" how was it not obvious that this was a Brit talking smack?

[NeonCat]

Anyway, it's a good thing the posters on H&R aren't in Britain, what with "grossly offensive messages" being a crime.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I'll kill you! You fucking cocksucker NeonCat!

[Enough About Palin]

You harm just one neon hair on his little neon head and I will fuck your ass nonstop for a week.

no homo

[Anonymous Coward]

Thoughtcrime does not entail death. Thoughtcrime is death.

[NeonCat]

You amuse me, EDG r' LBC, amuse me so much I'll send you a dollar for bus fare and a paper bag so you can be seen in public without people screaming. And because I'm such a nice guy there won't even be any dog shit in the bag, even though it would no doubt improve the miasma that follows you wherever you go.

[Res Publica Americana]

Did they call in the National Guard to protect all the other schools in the state, too? You know, to ensure that there were no massacres.

Pussies.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Nah, the local cops would have complained that they were being cut out of the action.

[NeonCat]

A British national has threatened American youth. Unless Her Majesty's Government agrees to extraordinary rendition we need nothing less than martial law to protect our children.

[GILMORE]

Virtually everyone posting comments on YouTube at this very moment are committing this very crime. Over. And Over. And Over. And Over. And Over. And Over. And Over. And Over. And Over. And Over. And Over. And Over. And Over.

YouTube comments are almost entirely vulgar, idiotic, senseless, offensive death-threats. Made by 12yr olds.