Tweeted bomb threat conviction upheld

A trainee accountant who posted a Twitter message threatening to blow up an airport has lost an appeal against his conviction.

Paul Chambers wrote a message on the social networking site saying that he would blow Robin Hood Airport, in Doncaster, "sky high" after learning that it may be closed on a day he planned to fly. The 27-year-old claimed the message, posted in January this year, was hyperbolic and clearly intended as a joke. He was found guilty in May of sending a menacing electronic communication and appealed.

But yesterday, Judge Jacqueline Davies said that Chambers' tweet was menacing, and that he was intelligent enough to realise that sending such a message would cause alarm.