A man who repeatedly threated to rape a member of Parliament via Twitter has been sentenced to 18 weeks in prison, although it was almost an even shorter sentence.
Peter Nunn, 33, sent vile rape threats to Stella Creasy from his Twitter account because she supported Caroline Criado-Perez’s campaign to get Jane Austen on the £10 banknote.
‘Hi, it took Twitter 30 minutes to ban me before. I'm here again to tell you that I'll rape you tomorrow at 6pm’ he wrote in 2013. Another Tweet read: ‘Best way to rape a witch, try and drown her first, then just as she is gagging for air, that is when you enter’
He also retweeted a message to Creasy saying ‘You better watch your back, I'm going to rape your arse at 8pm and put the video all over.’
In addition to his Tweets to Creasy, he sent rape threats to Caroline Criado-Perez and said that she was hot, and should take it as a compliment that anyone would want to rape her, not abuse.
When Nunn was arrested in August 2013, he said he wasn’t advocating violence or rape and when he retweeted messages that were violent, said he was trying to ‘further debate’. Of course this is hardly surprising, unless they are legit mentally ill, trolls are usually just cowards hiding behind social media.
Here’s the kicker: this guy has a three year-old daughter! Is he also including her in his woman-hating views? District judge Elizabeth Roscoe said she actually thought about giving Nunn a lighter sentence but she didn’t think it would be fair on his girlfriend and daughter. She also said a lighter sentence would not reflect the seriousness of his crime.
The sentencing, although light, hopefully is a step forward for victims of online harassment.
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.