Stephen Fry offers to pay fine of Twitter airport bomb joker
Stephen Fry has offered to pay the cost of any fines given to Twitter joker Paul Chambers after he was convicted of “menacing” conduct on the micro-blogging service.
Chambers had earlier in the year sarcastically threatened to bomb a local airport after it closed.
“Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!” was Chamber’s tweet in question.
However, after being taken to court and losing his appeal, Chambers now faces up to £3,600 worth of legal fees and fines.
A regular Twitter user with a massive following, Stephen Fry has put himself forward to help. “My offer still stands. Whatever they fine you, I’ll pay” said Fry.
Fry is not the only high-profile Twitter user to offer their support. Comedian Dara O’Briain said “An astonishing, ludicrous result in #twitterjoketrial. A victory for crushing literalism and scaremongering by the judiciary. Horrible.”
Actor David Mitchell shared the sentiment, saying “So that’s the banning of sarcasm, irony, sub-text and any of the other subtleties of language that we use AS GROWN UPS […] he’s being punished for flippancy” joking that “flippancy is important”.
You can follow any developments in the story by checking out the hashtag #twitterjoketrial .
