People named Joseph Kelly are sentenced to 150 hours community service to create “highly offensive” Twitter posts about Captain Sir Tom Moore, a British Army officer who raises money for the UK National Health Service (NHS) during the pandemic.

Moore became a national figure in England after doing 100 laps around his garden after serving 100 years. He was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. On the day Moore died, Kelly, 36, tweeted “the only dead British soldier, burn the old buuuuurn”.

Unlike other countries, the UK has different standards and is not afraid to sue internet users for offensive messages under a law known as the 2003 Communications Act.

The internet is not free from the law

Kelly was found guilty in February last year and faces a possible prison sentence. The UK has laws that allow social media users to be prosecuted for sending messages “very offensive”.

according to NationalKelly was sentenced, while his defense alleges that the user had several Twitter followers at the time, was under the influence of alcohol when he wrote the post, and deleted the tweet 20 minutes later.

“He accepted that he was wrong. He didn’t anticipate what would happen. He immediately took action to delete the tweet, but by then the genie was out of the bottle.”said Tony Callahan, Kelly’s defense agent.

“His crime rate was intoxicating posts, at a time when he was struggling emotionally, which he regretted and deleted almost instantly.”

Kelly has a sentence 18 months supervision and 150 working hours has not been paid in the form of a Scottish Community Reimbursement Order (CPO).

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