A British man has been sentenced to more than two years in prison after he wrote on Facebook that he planned to kill 200 United States citizens earlier this year.
Reece Elliott, a 24-year-old father-of-one, was sentenced this
week five months after he made remarks on the popular social
media site that caused residents of Warren County, Tennessee to
fear for their lives.
Elliott, a self-proclaimed Internet troll, first attracted the
attention of authorities after he used a phony Facebook account
to make posts on the tribute pages created for two teenage
victims of fatal car accidents.
“Fucking fat cunt deserves to die,” he wrote on the page
of a recently passed 17-year-old girl. “Stupid motherfucker
bitch. I hope you rot in hell,” Elliott admitted to posting
on another.
Those messages caught the attention of a local deputy sheriff,
who according to the UK’s Guardian newspaper then threatened to
have Elliott’s account shut-down. The British man then retaliated
by making a new set of posts on one of those Facebook tribute
pages that left thousands in Tennessee withering in fear.
“My father has three guns. I’m planning on killing him first
and putting his body in the dumpster,” Elliott wrote. “I’m
gonna kill hopefully at least 200 before I kill myself. So you
want to tell the deputy, I’m on my way.”
The following day, 2,908 pupils in the Warren County school
district – roughly half of those enrolled – were absent from
class. Although Elliott’s warning was made from across the pond,
it came just weeks after 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza opened
fire in a Connecticut elementary school and killed more than two
dozen people.
“The residents of Warren County and all the people who have
access to the Facebook page were clearly concerned,”
prosecutor Gary Buckley told the South Tyneside Magistrates’
Court in February after Elliott surrendered to authorities. He
has been held in custody ever since, and this week he was
sentenced to spen 28 months in jail by Judge James Goss QC, who
said the defendant’s crimes were driven by “no more than
self-indulgent nastiness.”
“Today’s sentencing marks the end of what has been a complex
investigation,” added Detective Chief Inspector Ged Noble, a
lead investigator in the case. “Investigating reports of
criminal behavior on social network sites has its challenges, but
we have staff who are trained in navigating these systems and
identifying who the offenders are.”
In court, Elliott called his conduct “idiotic, childish and
pathetic.” The Guardian reported he admitted to one count of
making threats to kill and eight Communications Act offenses.
Elliott’s sentencing comes amid a felony court case in the US
that has caused 19-year-old Justin Carter of Texas to have spent
five months so far awaiting the opportunity to fight charges
lobbed at him after he posted a similar threat his family says
was made sarcastically. “I’m going to go shoot up a school
full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts,” Carter
wrote on Facebook in an argument that stemmed from a dispute
involving a computer game. He faces upwards of 10 years in prison
if convicted of making a terroristic threat.
Republished with permission from: RT