Malicious Communications - Community Order Achieved

Case study summary

Our client was arrested and charged after sending a message to thousands of users on a TikTok live stream suggesting they were going to drive to the King's coronation and blow themselves up. We carefully managed the case and achieved a low-level community order for the client.

Case study

Our client was a digital content creator who frequently engaged in live-stream Tik-Toks. They had an impeccable record with not so much as a parking ticket to their name. When using Tik-Tok he watched and made videos about race cars. On this occasion, he came home after having a few drinks and was watching a live stream from someone at Buckingham Palace. As they posted comments with the hope of one being read out they got progressively more outlandish culminating in the comment that they had a van and would drive to the coronation and blow themselves up.

What they hadn’t appreciated is that the stream was being watched by thousands of people. One of whom obviously felt duty-bound to report the threat to the police. The police took the threat seriously and immediately scrambled to arrest and interrogate our client as a potential terrorist threat. The duty solicitor advised the client to tell the police everything but they still sought an emergency charging decision from the CPS. They were held in the cells overnight before being produced at court the next morning where the district judge was close to remanding into custody until sentencing.

We were thankfully instructed following the huge overreaction from Greater Manchester Police and the district judge. We were quickly able to ascertain that our client was no threat to anyone and had made a mistake which had been blown out of all proportion. We listened, engaged and prepared a comprehensive package to present to the court at the sentencing hearing. We even had the pleasure of the same district judge who had been so hard on our client at his first appearance. Thankfully on this occasion he was persuaded by our arguments and agreed to pass a short community order. The client was so pleased to be able to put the episode behind him.