A RANGERS fan who posted a threatening message about Celtic manager Neil Lennon on Twitter has been cleared of committing an offence.
Christopher Hay, 22, was the first person to be charged under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act in 2012 - after writing a message on his social networking site the day the act came into force.
Chip shop worker Mr Hay, from Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire, posted a message that included a line saying: "I should've planned my parcel bombs better."
The comment was posted during the high-profile parcel bomb trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Hay claimed it was a "throwaway comment" not intended to be seen by Lennon.
A a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court he denied intending to cause fear or alarm or being reckless as to whether he did or not, and was found not guilty by Sheriff Stuart Reid.
While the sheriff branded the comment "an offensive and threatening communication" he said that, after considering all of the evidence, there was not the necessary criminal intent needed for Mr Hay to be found guilty.
The court heard that, during a police operation, the post was spotted using keywords on a search facility of Twitter.
When interviewed by police, Mr Hay admitted posting the comment on his social networking site.
The court heard Lennon's name was not mentioned and it was not directed towards him.
Mr Hay told the court: "It was a moment of madness."
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