A cybernat who launched a Twitter hate campaign at a fellow party member using a fake social media account has been fined £1,500.
Tommy Ball, 32, created a spoof page in George Laird’s name and posted a number of abusive tweets in 2013.
At first Mr Laird thought the tweets were humorous until he saw messages saying “filthy old beast” and that he was a “known paedophile”.
The 51-year-old was worried when his home address was also posted on the social media account.
The IP address linked to the messages was traced to Ball’s address and he admitted what he did to police.
At Glasgow Sheriff Court Ball, who now lives in County Longford, Ireland, pled guilty to engaging in a course of conduct between January and August 2013 which caused George Laird fear or alarm.
He admitted setting up a fake Twitter account in his name and making sexually explicit remarks and allegations of a sexual nature.
Sentencing Ball, sheriff Margaret Liddell: “This was an unpleasant and malicious offence.”
Procurator fiscal depute Jane Hilditch told the court Mr Laird was a member of the SNP party.
The court heard that he “deeply regrets his actions”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article