x.com/TheMercianNews/status/2103500299054797026
2 corrections found
Let off two women for terrorism charged after glorifying 7 October massacre.
This misstates the case: it involved three women, not two, and they were found guilty before receiving conditional discharges.
Full reasoning
This sentence gets basic facts of the case wrong.
The February 2024 Westminster Magistrates' Court case involved three women — Heba Alhayek, Pauline Ankunda, and Noimutu Olayinka Taiwo — not two. Reporting on the verdict states that all three were found guilty of a terror offence after displaying paraglider images at a pro-Palestine rally.
It is also misleading to describe them only as "charged" at that stage. By the time Judge Tan Ikram sentenced them, they had already been convicted/found guilty, and he then gave the trio 12-month conditional discharges.
So the post is wrong on both the number of defendants and their procedural status.
2 sources
- Three people who displayed paraglider images at pro-Palestine rally guilty of terror offence | The Standard
Three people who displayed images of paragliders at a pro-Palestinian march have been convicted of a terrorist offence... But they were all found guilty on Tuesday by Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram of a terror offence... Handing the trio a 12-month conditional discharge, Mr Ikram said he had 'decided not to punish' the defendants.
- Calls to discipline judge who spared 'paraglider women' guilty of terror offence | The Standard
Judge Tan Ikram decided 'not to punish' three women who displayed pictures of paragliders... Heba Alhayek, 29; Pauline Ankunda, 26; and Noimutu Olayinka Taiwo, 27; were found guilty of a terror offence... Handing each woman a 12-month conditional discharge...
Sentenced a man to 20 weeks in jail for posting a racist joke in a WhatsApp chat.
This understates the case: it was not one joke in a chat, but 10 counts over multiple racist WhatsApp messages and memes.
Full reasoning
This description materially downplays what James Watts was convicted for.
Contemporaneous reporting on the case says Watts, a former police constable, was jailed after sending a string of racist WhatsApp memes. The court heard he had posted 10 offensive memes in May and June 2020, and he had pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sending a grossly offensive or menacing message by a public communications network.
So the case was not about a single "racist joke" in a WhatsApp chat. It involved multiple racist messages and memes, including content mocking George Floyd's death.
1 source
- Ex-police officer jailed for 20 weeks over racist WhatsApp messages | The Guardian
A former police constable has been jailed for 20 weeks after sending a string of racist WhatsApp memes... After a police inquiry, the 31-year-old was found to have posted 10 offensive memes in May and June 2020... Watts... pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to 10 counts of sending a grossly offensive or menacing message by a public communication network.