#IAmSpartacus: Thousands Tweet in Support of Convicted Airport Joker
The Twitter community has responded to Paul Chambers' guilty verdict at the Twitter Joke Trial by tweeting his original 'terrorist' message, with the hashtag #IAmSpartacus.
Chambers was convicted of "menace" for threatening to blow up an airport on Twitter for a laugh, lost his appeal yesterday and will have to pay approximately £2000 in legal fees (though Stephen Fry has offered to foot the bill).
Chambers, a 27-year-old accountant whose online courtship with another tweeter led to the "foolish prank", had hoped that a crown court would dismiss his conviction and £1,000 fine without a full hearing.
But Judge Jacqueline Davies instead handed down a devastating finding at Doncaster which dismissed Chambers's appeal on every count. After reading out his tweet – "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" – she found that it contained menace and Chambers must have known that it might be taken seriously.
On Twitter, hundreds of uses are tweeting jokey threats with the hashtag #twitterjoketrial in protest.
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