Two men brought up on trial for “joke” looting comments on Facebook

Oh Facebook, will you ever stop getting people in trouble? Probably not. Here’s a prime example of why you should think before you update your status – you never know who could be looking at your account other than yourself and your friends.

Two men in the UK have been brought up on trial for posting “joke” looting comments on the social networking website during the UK riots last summer. Hate to be them.

The Irish Independent reports that the two men told a jury they were joking when they both updated their Facebook profiles with the status: “PC World Lancaster, 7:30pm. Let the looting begin. Could do with a new laptop!!!!”

Somehow we doubt that the judge was impressed with their “did it for the lolz” defence.

Karl Manley, a 28 year old student, said he updated his Facebook status with the message after watching the looting and riots throughout London on television. His ‘hilarious’ status was then copied by his friend Stefan Johnson, 22.

In court both were accused of encouraging or assisting an offence of burglary to be committed.

After their status updates went live, police and community beat officers were sent to the PC World in question, but no rioters showed up.

Throughout the riots Lancashire Police had a team of officers monitoring the internet in an attempt to deal with any copycat incidents in the country. This team accessed both of the defendants’ Facebook profiles.

Giving evidence, Manley said that he had more than 500 Facebook friends and thought that his status would just be seen by them.

“I had no intention of putting it out to the whole world. At the time on Facebook there was loads of jokes going around and banter,” he said.

“Looking back now it was a mistake. I generally just thought of it as a bit of a joke amongst my friends. I just made it up as I was writing it,” he added.

Unfortunately the courts don’t take too kindly to people just having a bit of bants on Facebook. The trial is due to continue today.