Fined, the man who branded his wife a ‘ lying cow’ on Facebook
IT was an angry row that spilled over into the murky modern world of Facebook. But yesterday, a husband ended up with a criminal record and £175 fine for insulting his wife on the popular social networking site.
Kenneth McKenna, 31, had only meant the message to be seen by a small number of his own Facebook ‘friends’, Dumbarton Sheriff Court heard.
But when one of the couple’s mutual friends saw the post, which read: ‘Happy days when you find out that your soon to be ex-wife is a cheating, l ying cow,’ she i nformed his estranged spouse.
Fiscal depute Jeanette Mclean said the woman, who has not been named, was upset by the post and called police, who later arrested McKenna.
She added that the couple, who had been married only eight months, had not been getting on when the incident happened in April this year.
Defence agent Brian Maguire said his client and his wife had been in a relationship for a time before they tied the knot.
But not long into the marriage things started to go wrong and they separated in January this year before a brief reconciliation i n February, explained Mr Maguire.
But, he said, it soon became apparent that they were not going to be successful in making the marriage work and separated again. McKenna moved out of the marital home to live with his mother, the court heard.
Mr Maguire said his client had been i n contact with t his estranged wife to find out which lawyer she would be using for the divorce.
‘There were repeated telephone and text messages. But his wife seemed to be having second thoughts about the divorce. He took the view it was not going to go through.
‘ He was simply trying to
‘Posted in a fit of anger’
ascertain the identity of her solicitor, when information came to his attention and in a fit of anger he posted that message.’
Mr Maguire and Sheriff Raymond McMenamin then revealed that neither of them used the social networking website and were not sure how it worked. Mr Maguire said: ‘ As I understand it, you have Facebook friends.
‘If you post a message it is only seen by your friends. The message was only seen by Mr McKenna’s really small group of friends.
‘ It came to ( his estranged wife’s) attention through one of her friends who had seen the message and mentioned it had been posted.
‘My client accepts he should not have said that but he did not for a minute think it would come to her attention and that he would end up in court.’
Mr Maguire said the couple’s relationship was very much over and that McKenna just wanted to get on with his life.
The divorce, he added, would be finalised once his client’s fate became clear after the court appearance. McKenna admitted posting an abusive message on a social media website and was fined £ 175 by Sheriff McMenamin.
Last month, figures showed that soaring numbers of internet cri mes – i ncluding cyberbullying, grooming and stalking – were being investigated by police in Scotland.
An ‘explosion’ in social networking crimes has triggered a doubling in complaints to police about Facebook and Twitter in only 12 months.
More than 2,710 reports of threatening or abusive behaviour on the networking sites were logged last year by forces –
‘Relationship is very much over’
more than twice the 1,300 total in 2012.
Five years ago, there were only a handful of such cases in the UK. Now they number in the thousands, with officers chasing up seven new complaints every day.
A detailed breakdown revealed a wide variety of offences, with harassment and menacing messages among the most common.
In total, 6,538 crime reports mentioning Facebook or Twitter have been recorded in the last five years.
Facebook was mentioned in 5,804 of the complaints to Scottish police.
Other offences investigated included attempted extortion, assaults, thefts and breach of the peace.