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Internet troll says crimes not serious

24

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    Rory28 wrote: »
    I havent got a side in this "debate". He is a scumbag deserving or ridicule. You can defend him all you like.

    Let’s not take this off topic! Anyone who takes part in a debate obviously has a ‘side’ in it. His is someone who has acted very unwisely, in a way that does not appear mentally balanced, in a way that deserved to be brought before the justice system... all of this has happened... does he or anyone else who is unwell deserve ridicule or help to be rehabilitated?

    I am not defending his actions one bit.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    Permabear wrote: »
    This post had been deleted.
    There is no constitutional protection of free speech. The right to free expression is asserted, but only where it doesn't conflict with "public order and morality".

    So you could say that the protection of free speech ends as soon as it leaves your mouth.
    He said, however, that a psychiatric report gave a background of "very deep, underlying and disquieting issues in relation to his mental health" which contributed to "the matters which were regrettably conveyed to Ms Higgins".
    So, his own solicitor says that he's mentally ill, in a very serious way, and the judge sends him off on his merry way.

    Seriously, the next step here is this guy putting a bullet in his head. Maybe after he puts one in his mother's.

    Why the fnck was he not committed to an institution?


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,190 ✭✭✭Rory28


    minikin wrote: »
    Let’s not take this off topic! Anyone who takes part in a debate obviously has a ‘side’ in it. His is someone who has acted very unwisely, in a way that does not appear mentally balanced, in a way that deserved to be brought before the justice system... all of this has happened... does he or anyone else who is unwell deserve ridicule or help to be rehabilitated?

    I am not defending his actions one bit.

    On topic. I think the crime he committed is serious and I feel he got off easy.
    He should be locked up or sectioned for the death threats.

    He completely deserves ridicule imo. I'm not sure you can rehabilitate being a cancerous troll whos only joy comes from making others uncomfortable/afraid.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,628 ✭✭✭darkdubh


    Hes a dead ringer for yer man who goes ape**** in Full Metal Jacket.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,195 ✭✭✭✭RobbingBandit


    Keyboard warriors unite to sling pitchforks at Internet troll

    THE IRONING IS DELICIOUS ROUND THESE PARTS.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 16,768 ✭✭✭✭tomwaterford


    Dangerous fcuker who deosnt seem to care or have learned from his actions

    When asked whether he considered his crimes serious, French replied: "No, not really. It would have been if I went to jail. I suppose it would have been serious then.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    Rory28 wrote: »
    On topic. I think the crime he committed is serious and I feel he got off easy.
    He should be locked up or sectioned for the death threats.
    Don't disagree with this sentiment.
    He completely deserves ridicule imo. I'm not sure you can rehabilitate being a cancerous troll whos only joy comes from making others uncomfortable/afraid.
    Disagree with this - how will ridiculing him improve the situation for him or for the target of his threats?
    Of course he can be rehabilitated, he's an unwell individual, not Hannibal Lecter.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,190 ✭✭✭Rory28


    minikin wrote: »
    Don't disagree with this sentiment.


    Disagree with this - how will ridiculing him improve the situation for him or for the target of his threats?
    Of course he can be rehabilitated, he's an unwell individual, not Hannibal Lecter.

    Making a mockery of him can certainly help the victim of his threats. Now he is in the cold light of day and being rightly mocked the victim can see that he is not the boogeyman afterall. He is in fact a loser.

    I also disagree with the assumption he can be rehabilitated. Some people are just bad.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    Rory28 wrote: »
    Making a mockery of him can certainly help the victim of his threats. Now he is in the cold light of day and being rightly mocked the victim can see that he is not the boogeyman afterall. He is in fact a loser.

    I also disagree with the assumption he can be rehabilitated. Some people are just bad.

    Ok, lets tease this out - he is ridiculed, belittled and shamed (not only for his awful actions but also for his appearance, his mental health and his physical health).

    What if this causes him to lose all touch with reality and he goes after Lorraine Higgins for real? (rather than just expressing his obsessive delusions online)
    Will we all be there to disarm him with our keyboards??

    I'd suggest that it's best to leave it to the health professionals and the Gardaí and for the rest of us not to enflame the situation. That is the best way of helping Lorraine Higgins, Stephen French and all others concerned - the general public doesn't get its pound of flesh... that's all.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,905 ✭✭✭Noxin


    minikin wrote: »
    What if this causes him to lose all touch with reality and he goes after Lorraine Higgins for real?

    He'd have a tough time catching her!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,870 ✭✭✭✭mfceiling


    De Bhál wrote: »
    Hope that guy has no access to any sort of rifle

    He doesn't seem to have much access to healthy food, exercise or a life it would seem by looking at him.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,573 ✭✭✭Infini


    darkdubh wrote: »
    Hes a dead ringer for yer man who goes ape**** in Full Metal Jacket.

    Lord of the Rings rang: They want their cave troll back! :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,487 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    minikin wrote: »
    That is the best way of helping Lorraine Higgins, Stephen French and all others concerned - the general public doesn't get its pound of flesh... that's all.
    Must resist ......


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,190 ✭✭✭Rory28


    minikin wrote: »
    Ok, lets tease this out - he is ridiculed, belittled and shamed (not only for his awful actions but also for his appearance, his mental health and his physical health).

    What if this causes him to lose all touch with reality and he goes after Lorraine Higgins for real? (rather than just expressing his obsessive delusions online)
    Will we all be there to disarm him with our keyboards??

    I'd suggest that it's best to leave it to the health professionals and the Gardaí and for the rest of us not to enflame the situation. That is the best way of helping Lorraine Higgins, Stephen French and all others concerned - the general public doesn't get its pound of flesh... that's all.

    What do mean disarm with a keyboard? I don't tailor how I speak on the off chance it will spark a murderous rampage in a nutjob and you shouldnt either.

    The best way to help Lorraine Higgins is to lock this guy up.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,870 ✭✭✭✭mfceiling


    28.

    Is that stone or years?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,420 ✭✭✭splinter65


    seamus wrote: »
    There is no constitutional protection of free speech. The right to free expression is asserted, but only where it doesn't conflict with "public order and morality".

    So you could say that the protection of free speech ends as soon as it leaves your mouth.


    So, his own solicitor says that he's mentally ill, in a very serious way, and the judge sends him off on his merry way.

    Seriously, the next step here is this guy putting a bullet in his head. Maybe after he puts one in his mother's.

    Why the fnck was he not committed to an institution?

    I would expect that social services have become involved now following this prosecution and are looking into his mothers health and well being.
    She is probably very well looked after and these attacks on this poor woman are some kind of manifestation of some psychiatric problems the guy has.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 43,028 ✭✭✭✭SEPT 23 1989


    It's his mother I feel sorry for


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,420 ✭✭✭splinter65


    It's his mother I feel sorry for

    This is it. She’s got all the neighbors whispering. Family up in arms. She’s got social workers in probably poking about now. She’s got him skulking about the house 24 hours a day.
    The lives some people live.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,237 ✭✭✭mcmoustache


    biko wrote: »
    Why do the paper call him an "internet troll"?
    Maybe the article author doesn't really know what an internet troll is but think anyone who uses the means of internet to attack another person is a troll.

    He is not a troll but a weird freak posting threatening messages and should be in jail for death threats.

    Having been on the internet since the nineties, I understand trolling to be stirring sh*t in newsrooms and chatrooms. Often by taking a contrary position or pretending to be thick.

    Threatening people or trying to intimidate them wasn't known as trolling.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    Malayalam wrote: »
    ...

    Excellent response Malayalam, thanks.

    You're right that my descriptions of this poor guy or young man are subjective... because from my perspective he is both a young man (being only in his twenties) and a poor guy who is unwell and vulnerable - I feel pity for him and the predicament he has got himself into.
    His comments after sentencing are cold and calm and designed to inflict further bullying on the victim by intimating that she was looking for attention and that he was not that bad or else he would have been jailed, a psychopathic defense if ever I heard one. And no, psychopaths don't have to be ''unwell'' as in the sense of being incapable. His words seem quite cool and calculated.

    I would counter this point by saying we are reading only what the paper has reported, perhaps he also apologised and they felt the piece was stronger if they removed all empathy... easier to depict him as a cold weirdo.

    Life is complicated, I try to make allowances for people in all sorts of circumstances. Perhaps as a kid / young adult he has been on the receiving end of bullying over his weight, perhaps this has resulted in poor mental health, perhaps compounding such insults now online is not a great choice for the rest of us?

    None of this is by way of condoning his behaviour, but I do wince when I see the free for all thats allowed on here (and generally in society) when it comes to attacking a young white male.

    Had Stephen been of African descent would it have been acceptable for moderators/cat mods/posters to post comments on here about his skin colour or to post up disparaging photos of black media personalities because of some vague similarity? (Was the equivalent allowed in the 'Dundalk stabbing thread'?)


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 16,768 ✭✭✭✭tomwaterford


    minikin wrote: »
    Excellent response Malayalam, thanks.

    You're right that my descriptions of this poor guy or young man are subjective... because from my perspective he is both a young man (being only in his twenties) and a poor guy who is unwell and vulnerable - I feel pity for him and the predicament he has got himself into.

    Life is complicated, I try to make allowances for people in all sorts of circumstances. Perhaps as a kid / young adult he has been on the receiving end of bullying over his weight, perhaps this has resulted in poor mental health, perhaps compounding such insults now online is now a great choice for the rest of us?

    Maybe he's just a Bell-end??....

    He hasn't attempted to defend his actions....in fact he deosnt view them as serious atal




    As for online abuse....if he's good enough to give it and bully others,he should be good enough to take it aswell


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,063 ✭✭✭riemann


    It's his mother I feel sorry for

    I feel sorry for anyone who takes online abuse from random strangers seriously. There is a block button for a reason.

    #sad


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,190 ✭✭✭Rory28


    minikin wrote: »
    None of this is by way of condoning his behaviour, but I do wince when I see the free for all thats allowed on here (and generally in society) when it comes to attacking a young white male.

    Had Stephen been of African descent would it have been acceptable for moderators/cat mods/posters to post comments on here about his skin colour or to post up disparaging photos of black media personalities because of some vague similarity? (Was the equivalent allowed in the 'Dundalk stabbing thread'?)

    What has him being white got to do with anything?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    Maybe he's just a Bell-end??....

    Indeed, perhaps he is just a bell-end... surely his bell-end-ish actions should be enough to attack, without having to reference his physical appearance.

    It's tabloid reporting/gutter behaviour attacking someone because of their weight, it is saying they deserve MORE punishment and more RIDICULE because they're FAT... school yard bullying b.s.
    As for online abuse....if he's good enough to give it and bully others,he should be good enough to take it aswell

    In this society we have a courts system that we use to try to dispense justice.
    Is this not a more civilised idea than 'an eye for an eye'?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    Rory28 wrote: »
    What has him being white got to do with anything?

    Exactly my point, what has him being overweight got to do with anything?
    Why is it acceptable to attack the amount of skin he fills, but not the colour of that skin?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 415 ✭✭falinn merking


    minikin wrote: »
    Indeed, perhaps he is just a bell-end... surely his bell-end-ish actions should be enough to attack, without having to reference his physical appearance.

    It's tabloid reporting/gutter behaviour attacking someone because of their weight, it is saying they deserve MORE punishment and more RIDICULE because they're FAT... school yard bullying b.s.



    In this society we have a courts system that we use to try to dispense justice.
    Is this not a more civilised idea than 'an eye for an eye'?

    Not sure but it is a lot more lucrative I am sure about that.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 16,768 ✭✭✭✭tomwaterford


    minikin wrote: »

    In this society we have a courts system that we use to try to dispense justice.
    Is this not a more civilised idea than 'an eye for an eye'?

    The courts and justice obviously deosnt work when this lad thinks sending death threats etc aren't a big deal?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    Not sure but it is a lot more lucrative I am sure about that.

    Very true, but cheaper than the moral price we would have to pay for having knee-capping mobs dispensing justice. :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    The courts and justice obviously deosnt work when this lad thinks sending death threats etc aren't a big deal?

    Thought should be a punishable crime now? Just because he thinks it doesn't make him right or sane.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,585 ✭✭✭weisses


    https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/i-will-watch-you-bleed-internet-troll-spared-jail-despite-vile-death-threats-against-senator-36474556.html

    II%20GM%20French%201%20Read-Only.jpg

    I disagree! Mr Troll.

    Not only twitter and stuff, actual emails




    Judge spared a jail sentence though.

    Yajsus that fat guy/girl takes the term "bingo wings" to a whole new level


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 33,663 ✭✭✭✭Princess Consuela Bananahammock


    De Bhál wrote: »
    Hope that guy has no access to any sort of rifle

    Not a chance he'd actually go and use it.

    Everything I don't like is either woke or fascist - possibly both - pick one.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,785 ✭✭✭✭padd b1975


    Noxin wrote: »
    He'd have a tough time catching her!

    Those mobility scooters are surprisingly nippy...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    Never said taught should be punishable??


    Looks to me like he got off Scot free and has faced no justice....deosnt even think it's a serious offence
    >>what's to stop him doing it again

    You're judging the effectiveness of the judicial system by, what it's reported, the person found guilty said they thought about the situation.
    That's like saying the courts are ineffective because some gangster who has been sentenced to ten years said he'd do it 'spinning on his ****' (my asterisks)
    Just because people say things doesn't make them true.

    How did he get off scot free?
    He was found guilty and given what Justice Anthony Halpin felt was an appropriate sentence, six months suspended for two years.
    He now has a criminal conviction which will dog him for the rest of his days.
    Sounds like punishment to me.

    But that's not enough for some, lets totally destroy him on here, a taste of his own medicine, lets victimise him... yeah, to show him that victimising and bullying people online isn't acceptable in this society... yeah...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,661 ✭✭✭✭Arghus


    He looks like the dictionary definition of seriously mentally ill. I don't know if sending him off to prison would be the right punishment in this particular case, but he should definitely have to undergo some form of therapy. We might laugh at the state of him, but he looks like a ticking time-bomb waiting to go off.

    I wouldn't conflate the issue of free speech with the judge's remarks. Being subjected to criticism and even abuse is part and parcel of being a public representative, but what this guy had to say was beyond the pale - outright threats to kill, coupled with comments about "passing you on the street" - truly chilling stuff. I don't know how anyone could regard them as being within the even sometimes harsh confines of normal criticism a public representative should have to put up with.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 16,768 ✭✭✭✭tomwaterford


    minikin wrote: »
    How did he get off scot free?
    He was found guilty and given what Justice Anthony Halpin felt was an appropriate sentence, six months suspended for two years.
    He now has a criminal conviction which will dog him for the rest of his days.
    Sounds like punishment to me.

    Meh if your happy to have seriously dangerous and insane people walking the streets who harass people and give repeated death threats

    That is your own business,and not for me to judge


    . ...looks to me like theres nothing happened to say he's not doing the same as he was to another person,right now??


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    Meh if your happy to have seriously dangerous and insane people walking the streets who harass people and give repeated death threats

    That is your own business,and not for me to judge

    . ...looks to me like theres nothing happened to say he's not doing the same as he was to another person,right now??

    Where did I say that I was happy about any of what this guy threatened to do?

    Are you qualified to say that this guy is seriously dangerous? Are you happy to fill the prisons with people who think and say bad things, thereby leaving no room for the people who ACTUALLY DO bad things?

    I'm more concerned about the people who actually do damage, than those who mouth off with empty threats.
    You're familiar with the phrase 'empty vessels make the most noise'?

    I would imagine if the judge had evidence that there was any real prospect of the guy actually acting on these words then he would be behind bars this evening. But then, it's not for us to judge the judge's judgement.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,870 ✭✭✭✭mfceiling


    I suppose with all the worrying about this lad and the threats that he made, should we spare a thought for the victim.
    You know...the person that this lad abused.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,206 ✭✭✭✭B.A._Baracus


    The gas things is it's almost a guarantee he is reading this thread :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,937 ✭✭✭✭Kermit.de.frog


    A few days of being ridiculed online may be tough but not undeserved.

    Easy to be a hard man behind a keyboard but that woman must have been terrified.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    A few days of being ridiculed online may be tough but not undeserved.

    Perhaps they were exactly Stephen French’s initial thoughts about Lorraine Higgins?

    Sure there’s no harm in a bit of online bullying, er... I mean commentary on social media... sure it’s their own fault for putting themselves in this position where they can be targeted... sure it’s only words - what harm can come of it?

    The glee some are taking in kicking this guy about is amazing, seems to be ‘who can get the hardest kick in FIRST’... from the news rag publishing the full address of a mentally unwell person (through combination of photo and words, no doubt waiting with drool for the follow up story of a vigilante reprisal on him by some other easily led unwell individual) to this thread and some of the contributions on here.

    Pity we don’t behave better than those we condemn.

    MQxHhHA.gif


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 777 ✭✭✭Skedaddle


    I think we need to stop minimising this as "trolling". Originally, internet trolling was just mildly annoying people derailing forum discussions and so on by being a bit silly.

    Sending someone death threats on line is no different from sending threatening letters or making threatening phonecalls. We don't call that behaviour postal trolling or telephone trolling. I don't see why we try to redefine very serious harassment just because it's online.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,030 ✭✭✭Minderbinder


    Keyboard warriors unite to sling pitchforks at Internet troll

    THE IRONING IS DELICIOUS ROUND THESE PARTS.

    And just throw the irony brigade into the mix and it’s one hell of a party.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,937 ✭✭✭✭Kermit.de.frog


    No need for ironing on this one tbh.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,311 ✭✭✭✭weldoninhio


    minikin wrote: »
    The personal abuse of this poor guy is appalling. What exactly has his appearance got to do with anything, some on here are as guilty of online bullying as this young lad.

    He’s been through the courts system, looks like some on here won’t be happy until he’s hounded into an early grave.

    Mob justice is no justice.

    When asked about his online bullying and if it was a serious matter he said "No, not really." So i'm sure it won't bother him in the slightest.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,311 ✭✭✭✭weldoninhio


    minikin wrote: »
    You're judging the effectiveness of the judicial system by, what it's reported, the person found guilty said they thought about the situation.
    That's like saying the courts are ineffective because some gangster who has been sentenced to ten years said he'd do it 'spinning on his ****' (my asterisks)
    Just because people say things doesn't make them true.

    How did he get off scot free?
    He was found guilty and given what Justice Anthony Halpin felt was an appropriate sentence, six months suspended for two years.
    He now has a criminal conviction which will dog him for the rest of his days.
    Sounds like punishment to me.

    But that's not enough for some, lets totally destroy him on here, a taste of his own medicine, lets victimise him... yeah, to show him that victimising and bullying people online isn't acceptable in this society... yeah...

    I very much doubt he'll be troubling the job market any time soon looking at the state of him.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,311 ✭✭✭✭weldoninhio


    The gas things is it's almost a guarantee he is reading this thread :pac:

    I'd say theres a mini chance he, or his kin are posting here too. :P:P


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    minikin wrote: »
    Exactly my point, what has him being overweight got to do with anything?
    Why is it acceptable to attack the amount of skin he fills, but not the colour of that skin?
    His overall appearance - torn, unwashed clothes, bad skin and morbid obesity illustrates someone who is unaware of basic personal care or who is so mired in mental illness that they just don't care about their appearance.

    His obesity isn't the be-all and end-all of his mental state, but it certainly paints a picture of someone who has trouble taking care of themself.

    The shaved head doesn't help calm the "I am an internet Nazi" persona, but that can be just coincidental.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    When asked about his online bullying and if it was a serious matter he said "No, not really." So i'm sure it won't bother him in the slightest.

    Continue doing it so, if you enjoy it.
    Let's lower ourselves to the same level as the offender.
    Sure, what harm can come from a bit of online bullying?

    akubra.PNG


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭minikin


    I'd say theres a mini chance he, or his kin are posting here too. :P:P

    Clever, but no... don't know, am not related to, have never had any interaction with this person. I was just raised in a society where if you see someone being bullied you did something about it rather than joined in, things seem to have changed around here.

    d'ya want ta be in my gang, my gang, my gang...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,740 ✭✭✭kingtiger


    Jasus I thought the pic in the OP was a meme

    this eejit actually exists


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