Man prosecuted for posting airsoft photos on facebook

[Rogerborg]

Oops!  So much for my investigative skills - I should apply for a job as a detective with ScotPlod.

 

Well, I'm glad that it worked out for you eventually, and I wish you the very best in rinsing them big style for this total farce of a case.

 

Do you have any idea why they picked on you in particular?  Anything distinctive about the pictures that they allege that you posted?  Any previous with the coppers in the case?  It's truly baffling, and it feels like any of us could be next.

[BALDYMONSTER]

I have a slight inkling, but absolutely nothing at all that even comes near justifying their actions and treatment of myself.

 

 

[BALDYMONSTER]

And believe me when I say it could be any of you next.

 

Three armed response vehicles, a police helicopter, my house searched and  30 items taken as “evidence”, including my laptop and iPhone amongst other personal items.

 

Held for 13 hours and denied any medical care an attention.

 

if it wasn’t for the desk sargeant being so decent the CID wanted me detained to appear in court the next day!

 

6 weeks to get my property back, iPhone no longer works, magazine from my HK416 is completely broken. Magazine from my WE HI-Capa is damaged and the laser on my HK416 has a broken tail switch.

 

My girlfriend had a nervous breakdown over this and it has seriously effected myself in many ways also.

 

To add, I am not one of these guys that has an attitude with the cops, the guys in the ground were just doing what they were told and acting on the intel they had been given. Which turned out to be complete and utter lies when presented in court.

 

As I said earlier, I actually felt sorry for the two cops that had to take the stand as they had not been told the truth and full facts at all and were made to look and feel more than a little stupid.

[djben9]

I’ve since changed my Twitter image but tbh hardly post many pics these days and if I do I try my hardest to make sure people know it’s Airsoft.... 

 

thsnks for the info 

[EDcase]

That's unbelievable.

Surely there must be some legal recourse for the mental stress and property damage!?!?!

I guess it would cost too much.

 

Maybe talk to a news outlet...?

 

I'm shocked and sickened how completely incompetent some of these authority personnel are.

 

 

[callumbagshaw]

Yet more inconsistencies in the policing of the laws in this country.

Sickening that something so petty is acted upon yet genuine hate speech or photos that do cause genuine offense or distress remain a daily feature of my Facebook feed. 

@BALDYMONSTER Hope everything works out for you mate, sorry to hear about this.

[BALDYMONSTER]

Thanks mate, the amount of stress and anxiety this has caused is nothing short of extraordinary.

 

Its really driven a wedge between my girlfriend and I as we have been through the worst few years of our lives since 2014 already.

 

She is only now getting a little better after her second nervous breakdown, entirely brought on by this utter nonsense.

 

My lawyer states  quite clearly that even in the case of someone that did not suffer “severe depression, anxiety and ptsd due to physical and sexual child abuse” would have substantial grounds to sue the Police for their actions.

 

The very real problem is that I am now very wary/scared of the Police as I know what they are capable of.

 

And if I was to sue them, surely this would just make them more focused on some sort of revenge?

 

Additiinally, I used to love the place I live in/at, but now it’s totally tainted. Feels like I’ve been burgled. They went through everything, confiscating all manner of inconsequential stuff.

 

But before they turned my house upside down, they took great care to disconnect my cctv and place it lense down on the table.......

 

Go figure.

[Rogerborg]

It's a pickle.  I'd be guided by your lawyers on this one, since the sheriff's comments about how he was minded to decide are unusual and very disheartening.  It almost sounds like he's inviting ScotPlod to try again, but to do a better job of fitting up their next victim.

 

Apologies for the scepticism earlier - the case sounded unbelievable, but I see it's all been confirmed.  Which makes it an obscene abuse of power.

 

For what's it's worth, I work with the police and know plenty of coppers who are decent people - given the opportunity to be so.  But would I call them?  If my life depended on it, and for pretty much no other reason.

[James1989]

I don't know if its worth it but UKAPU said they managed to influence airsoft related law when it came to new law changes. Maybe if they have any political influence they can stop what happened to you happening again to anyone? 

[Rogerborg]

Good call, certainly worth making sure that they're aware of the case.

 

Although this isn't down to a problem with airsoft law specifically, it sounds like some high-heid-yins in Police Scotchland and the Fiscal got together and demanded some "firearms" related convictions.

[djben9]

im sure they are aware and im sure it will be in a future magazines, its to big an issue to miss and affects our sport and social media

[BALDYMONSTER]

That’s the thing though isn’t it?

 

Basically the truth and facts where ignored and I was targeted and treated like a known terrorist for doing nothing different from thousands of others posting similar pics daily.

 

I used to liaise with the cops regularly for many years due to the industry I was in, most cops are decent guys. In fact I’ll bet all the ones with their feet on the ground that day following orders from a DCI and an inspector are decent guys as well. It’s just more than a little sad that they were not told the truth or anything like the facts.

 

I was cuffed and held at the busiest roundabout in the area for all to see, film and take pics of for half an hour at rush hour.

 

Thwn these amateur reporters/photographers posted their footage all over social media for it to be shared over and over.

 

What do you think that makes me look like to people? Rhetorical question obviously.

 

My lawyer is all for bringing them to task but I freely admit, I’m too bloody scared of the subsequent consequences should we win our case!

 

If I had the deposit to move house I would do so tomorrow, this place is totally tainted for me now.

 

I can’t help but think that since that got thrown out, what have they got planned next for me?

[Wo1f]

At the end of the day, only you know what’s best for you. But if it was me, I’d take it all the way. 

 

They’d be less likely to have another go at you (or another airsofter) if they lost thousands every time they had a go. At the end of the day, you haven’t don’t anything remotely wrong or illegal, so nothing will ever ‘stick’. 

 

I understand and the grief it’s caused which would put a lot of people off, but I’d want to teach them a lesson. Times are tough for police funding right now. They can’t afford to have another go once they’ve been made to look stupid and got sued for the privilege... but I am a spiteful bastard.. 

[Rogerborg]

I hope you're never in a position to have to make that choice, and that none of us are.  And while I hope OP is compensated for this flagrant fit-up, I wouldn't be convinced that taking a bite out of ScotPlod's budget would result in cut backs to Operation Hit the Soft Targets.  Coming after us is cheaper, easier and a lot safer than laying hands on actual criminals.

 

Out of interest, from what Facebook group did they allege that they'd scraped the images?

[BALDYMONSTER]

It wasn’t from a group, it was my own personal account.

 

That incidentally had all the privacy settings as right as possible, but the cops admitted that they had asked for  an “open source” request on my account.

 

 

[Gepard]

That's terrible, @BALDYMONSTER! I hope you get reimbursed for your time, health and personal items. It really is a scary thought that this could happen to any one of us law abiding players.

 

Although perhaps this is one example organisations like UKAPU can use to help prevent this happening in the future? It may be worth reaching out and telling your story and see if we can get some sort of change going. 

[Mr Monkey Nuts]

So go on, whats the rest of the story, what are you not telling us? What happened before all of this? Context is very important.

 

The police would absolutely not have followed this course of action without precedent or reason. They certainly wouldn't threaten to call you affront a court without all of their eggs in a basket. There is a reason this action was started and it wasn't just for putting pictures of facebook.

 

My speculation is that this has stemmed from a facebook/social media argument, that has become heated and aggressive, Threats and intimidation were made, probably by both parties. Someone involved has seen your images and feels genuinely threatened and took it further.

 

Any previous?

 

That scenario would seem to support the polices actions to be reasonable. Your internet persona certainly would fit the bill.

 

Ball park figure, anywhere near the truth?

If YES: Suckit up princess.

If No: f*ck the police!

[Rogerborg]

34 minutes ago, BALDYMONSTER said:

It wasn’t from a group, it was my own personal account.

 

Ah. In one way that makes it very slightly less scary for the rest of us than if they'd scraped an airsoft group and blatantly ignored the obvious context.

 

However,...

 

34 minutes ago, BALDYMONSTER said:

That incidentally had all the privacy settings as right as possible, but the cops admitted that they had asked for  an “open source” request on my account.

 

Yeah, shenanigans there.  So they didn't just happen to stumble across it, the copper in question actually sought it out.  Because why?

Their initial story was that it had been a public tip off, but they recanted that later, right?  I guess we'll never know the truth.

 

I should mention that there does still appear to be a video clip of someone holding a RIF publicly accessible on a Facebook account with your name.

[Rogerborg]

15 minutes ago, Mr Monkey Nuts said:

The police would absolutely not have followed this course of action without precedent or reason.

 

You'd be surprised how much momentum the policeman's ball picks up once it's given a nudge and starts rolling.

 

Northumbria Police used an aircraft to take aerial pictures of the "crime" scene where a person was accused of eating an apple with intent.  The casus belli was that a copper thought she was using a mobile phone, went into red mist mode, and refused to wind his neck in when it turned out that he'd been wrong.  The Farce and CPS chose to back him to the hilt, apparently having wrapped up every other crime in the region:

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-335291/Pipped-Woman-driver-fined-eating-apple.html

 

So while I'm minded to agree that there's likely some back story that we'll never know, the stubborn prosecution was entirely in character.

[Mr Monkey Nuts]

Did you read the article? She was found guilty. She was not accused of "eating an apple with intent" she was accused and convicted of being "not in proper control of a motor vehicle" an offence under the Road Traffic Act.

 

That whole article is an anti police smear by her lawyers, when she was categorically in the wrong.

 

Genuine question: would you think that someone eating an apple is a reasonable excuse for them to avoid prosecution, if they killed your family by being out of control of their car?

[BALDYMONSTER]

1 hour ago, Mr Monkey Nuts said:

So go on, whats the rest of the story, what are you not telling us? What happened before all of this? Context is very important.

 

The police would absolutely not have followed this course of action without precedent or reason. They certainly wouldn't threaten to call you affront a court without all of their eggs in a basket. There is a reason this action was started and it wasn't just for putting pictures of facebook.

 

My speculation is that this has stemmed from a facebook/social media argument, that has become heated and aggressive, Threats and intimidation were made, probably by both parties. Someone involved has seen your images and feels genuinely threatened and took it further.

 

Any previous?

 

That scenario would seem to support the polices actions to be reasonable. Your internet persona certainly would fit the bill.

 

Ball park figure, anywhere near the truth?

If YES: Suckit up princess.

If No: f*ck the police!

 

 

There had to be one didn’t there?

 

It would appear you seem to know me or have been told the usual nonsense to suit someone’s agenda.

 

The bottom line is that no arguments where had concerning or involving either of these pics. The comments below the pics clearly demonstrated that these were airsoft items. A simple look through my page would have demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that this was airsoft, to say the very least.  Nobody was involved in any heated exchanges or arguments in or around these two pics, in fact, quite the very opposite. There was no member of the public that had reported these images to the police despite this being what the police initially claimed. It was a member of the police themselves (seemingly high up) that took it entirely upon his self to task others to do what they did. And it was proven in court that these other officers had not been informed or shown the comments below the pics. And they admitted themselves that had they seen or been made aware of the comments below each of the two pics they would have looked at things entirely differently, as in, would have realised the two pics were no different to the thousands of others posted daily on all sorts of social media.

 

As for the cops getting all their eggs in one basket before going to court.....there was an awful lot more that came out about how this entire thing came about and was handled than just a break in the chain of evidence my friend.

 

Additionally, it’s very poignant that several PF’s, uniform cops and other lawyers stated quite clearly that this should not go ahead and it was a complete waste of time and public money.

 

Now, you’re asking if I have any precon? Perhaps I do, and maybe, just perhaps countless others that play airsoft and post similar pics all over various forms of social media daily do as well....what a shocker!!!

 

Do I have any previous offences with firearms? Nope, not a thing. In fact I was a long term section 1 and section 2 licence holder until I voluntarily handed them in for personal reasons.

 

Try and bend it however you like but if those sort of resources, time, training and money can be spent dedicating an entire operation of that scale on me because of two airsoft related pics...

 

Then bloody hell the cops should be arresting people 24/7 for similar pics or even looking down the lense in a “threatening manner”.

 

Not to mention all the threats and intimidating claims the average Jeremy Kyle guest posts up daily as they publicise their chavvy drama filled lives all over the net.

[Rogerborg]

21 hours ago, Mr Monkey Nuts said:

Did you read the article?

 

The 12 year old article that I'm so familiar with that I recalled it from memory?  No, what did it say?

 

 

Quote

She was found guilty.

 

Can you quote where I said she was innocent?  You'll notice the reference to "other" crimes.

 

 

Quote

She was not accused of "eating an apple with intent" she was accused and convicted of being "not in proper control of a motor vehicle" an offence under the Road Traffic Act.

 

Funnily enough, eating a banana gets you a conviction for driving without due care and attention.

 

 

Quote

That whole article is an anti police smear by her lawyers, when she was categorically in the wrong.

 

Can you quote where I said she was in the right?

 

You may be missing the point somewhat.  It's about how the police and prosecution services can get the red mist on and use a sledge-hammer to crush a monkey nut, or an apple.

 

 

Quote

Genuine question: would you think that someone eating an apple is a reasonable excuse for them to avoid prosecution, if they killed your family by being out of control of their car?

 

 

It'd give me more time to share my genius on the internets.  Bonum commune communitatis.

 

[BALDYMONSTER]

Come on guys, let’s not allow this to descend into petty bickering.

[BALDYMONSTER]

On 17/10/2017 at 2:08 PM, Rogerborg said:

That's... actually pretty bad.  Can you please fix your title: he was prosecuted and put on trial, at a time when the Fiscal is bawwing about having no resources for prosecuting real crimes.  We're not talking about some wee ned either, the chap is 45.

 

The really concerning part is that the Sheriff apparently was going to convict based on the bare images that ScotPlod had scraped from Facebook, until it came out that they'd removed the context that what they showed was a bunch of toys posted in a group where people post, and expect to see, images of a bunch of toys.  That's truly disturbing - many of the pictures on here would seem to be fair game.

 

I'm seeing if I can track their victim down on Facebook to see if there's more to the story, although I imagine he's going to be quite shy of the platform now.

 

Sheer speculation, but I have to wonder if the copper was more than professionally involved.  I can't fathom any other reason for joining a Facebook group full of people posing with toys, and then choosing one particular chap to pass to the Fiscal for prosecution for "menacing images".  I mean, why him?  Why those pictures?  There's got to be something more to this.

 

Wait, was it this bloke and this video?

 

 

Im more than a little concerned about my account seemingly being now live again.

 

 

Seeing as I completely deactivated my account the day after the cops detained, interviewed, searched my house, confiscated 30 odd items and then charged me with a “Breach of the peace”

 

And it’s now been brought to my attention that my fb account is now fully “live” again!

[BALDYMONSTER]

On 22/10/2017 at 7:45 PM, Rogerborg said:

Direct link: 

 

 

It contains some interesting comments by the defence lawyers revealing the " terrible error on the part of the police" in stripping the context from the pictures without disclosing this to the defence.

 

Tellingly: "Mentioning no names, a number of PF deputes I spoke to thought the prosecution ridiculous; however, I understand their views were over-ruled on high."

 

 

 

 

This is truly the most deeply concerning issue at the heart of the entire matter.

 

Several other PF’s, uniform, lawyers and other judges stayed quite clearly, off the record unfortunately but understandably that the entire thing was a complete and utter farce and should never have happened let alone been brought to court.

 

But the top Brass made sure that nobody was to even consider dropping it, it was to go all the way regardless of anything, even common sense, ahem.