A Sheriff Court in Perth, Scotland, has passed the first
sentence in the UK for sending offensive text messages to a mobile
phone. Callum Boyce, a 23 year-old farmworker from Milnathort was
yesterday fined £100 for sending a series of insults to a former
friend’s phone after finding him alone with his wife in their
house. Mr Boyce’s wife said that Peter Buller had been aggravating
her and suggesting that she should have sex with him.
Mr Boyce admitted that on 31st July he sent four grossly
offensive messages by phone of an indecent, obscene or menacing
character. He was charged under the Telecommunications Act 1984
which prohibits obscene messages by telephone. One of the messages
read, “Baldy pervert, you have wrecked our marriage, so I am going
to break your neck.” Mr Buller called the police who then arrested
Mr Boyce.
According to estimates, 500 million text messages per month are
sent on UK mobile phones.
