Woman found guilty in 'cyber-bully' case

A housewife who posed as a teenage boy to send hostile emails to a neighbour's daughter was found guilty yesterday of several minor charges related to the "cyber-bullying" that prompted the girl's suicide.

Lori Drew was convicted of three counts of accessing a computer without authorisation, after using a fake MySpace account to send taunting messages to Megan Meier, a vulnerable 13-year-old with a history of depression, who was being bullied at school. She was acquitted of three felony charges of deliberately using the profile of "Josh Evans", a fictitious 16-year-old, to inflict emotional distress on the victim. The jury failed to reach a decision on a seventh count.

The verdict means that Drew will face a relatively light sentence at the end of a trial that marked the first cyber-bullying prosecution in US history. Each misdemeanour carries a maximum sentence of a year's imprisonment and a $100,000 (£65,000) fine; felony charges carry 20 years.

Prosecutors had earlier told the jury how Drew, 49, had set out to "tease, embarrass, humiliate, make fun of and hurt" the "suicidal and boy-crazy" girl, using the social networking site to send a message telling Megan that "the world would be a better place" without her. Megan replied, telling "Evans" that he was "the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over", before disappearing to the upstairs room of her family home in O'Fallon, Missouri, where she hanged herself with a belt.

The main witness had been Megan's mother, Tina, who tearfully recalled how her daughter, who was taking medication for attention deficit disorder, had apparently been befriended by a boy online in September 2006. A month later, during a visit to the dentist with her younger daughter, Tina Meier had gone home to see how Megan was doing, and discovered her in tears, because "Josh" and two girls were "saying mean things about her". Later that day, Megan killed herself.

Ms Drew, who lived locally, had apparently started using the fake MySpace account to find out whether Megan had been spreading rumours about her daughter, Sarah, who attended the same school. Another witness, Susan Prouty, a business associate of Drew, testified that she had talked of a plan to print out a thread of flirtatious messages to take to Megan's school to "humiliate her".

The case made legal history because it revolved around charges that Ms Drew lied on the fake MySpace profile, violating the site's terms of service which require users to provide "truthful and accurate" registration information. Although the law surrounding cyber-bullying is unclear, prosecutors in Meier's native Missouri had declined to press charges, saying there was no legal mechanism under which they could be brought. The case was instead heard at a federal court in Los Angeles because Fox Interactive, the owner of MySpace, is based in Beverly Hills.

Ms Drew had throughout the trial denied that she was using her computer when the fateful, final message to Megan was sent. While she knew of the existence of "Josh Evans", she claimed the hostile emails were sent by her daughter, Sarah, and several friends. Drew's attorney, H Dean Steward, fought unsuccessfully to have the charges thrown out before trial, arguing that people routinely create fake identities on the internet without fear of prosecution. He also tried and failed to ban prosecutors from mentioning Megan's death on grounds that it might prejudice the jury.

Although the verdict broke new legal ground and could provide boundaries for the way Americans are held accountable for their actions online, experts say Ms Drew is likely to escape prison and is expected to receive probation and a small fine.