Police investigate ‘abusive’ comments

A spokeswoman for the PSNI told the Sentinel: “Police in Foyle received a report on Wednesday, March 20 of offensive and abusive comments on a social media page.

“Enquiries will be carried out to determine if a crime has been committed and appropriate action will be taken.”

DUP Alderman Gary Middleton alerted both the PSNI and the company behind the social networking website, Facebook, about posts on the ‘Sesh Station Derry’ profile page.

“I’ve contacted the PSNI and I spoke to Facebook about it, in the hope that they can take it down,” Mr Middleton told the Sentinel.

“There are a number of quite abusive comments about teachers and priests on it and I think people need to realise the seriousness of it.”

The Sentinel contacted the website owner about the posts - some of which are homophobic in nature - and asked if it was content to facilitate this type of commentary on one of its profile pages.

The paper advised the company that under the Communications Act 2003 people can be jailed for “sending by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or causes any such message or matter to be so sent.”

The paper also advised that under the same law “a person is guilty of an offence if, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another, he sends by means of a public electronic communications network, a message that he knows to be false; causes such a message to be sent; or persistently makes use of a public electronic communications network.”

The Sentinel had not received a response at the time of going to press.