'If You Don't Like It, Don't Read It'

By Nazia Parveen

A High Court judge yesterday questioned why Chris Huhne’s lover continued to read articles about herself when she found them offensive.

Mr Justice Tugendhat was told that Carina Trimingham, who is suing the Daily Mail for alleged harassment, had set up alerts through the internet site Google where she would be warned every time a Daily Mail or Mail on Sunday article mentioned her. She was said to have found many of them upsetting, taking particular offence at readers’ comments on the Mail website.

But the judge said: ‘Once she knew how things were being reported she continued to read the articles. This is the basic education of children, if you don’t like it dear, don’t go there.’

Miss Trimingham, 44, who was in a civil partnership when she started her affair with former Energy Secretary Mr Huhne, is suing over what she describes as homophobic references to her sexuality in newspaper stories. She accuses Associated Newspapers, parent company of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, of misuse of private information and harassment in 65 articles, including references to her size and hair.

But Daily Mail journalists, columnists and editors have denied that the articles were homophobic and have said the references to Miss Trimingham were descriptive and not designed to be offensive.

The five-day hearing, which finished yesterday, was told that Miss Trimingham didn’t buy the Daily Mail but had a Google alert set up to inform her every time she was mentioned in the newspaper or its website.

Anthony White QC, for Associated Newspapers, said: ‘She went looking for these articles. It is a highly relevant feature of the case that she set up these media alerts. The coverage was not that different to what was in other newspapers, there was just more of it.’

Matthew Ryder QC, for Miss Trimingham, said setting up an alert was the same as asking a friend what had been reported. He said: ‘When you are aware that newspapers are writing about you and that people are reading it, it is reasonable to assume that you would want to know it was going on.’

In a previous hearing Miss Trimingham admitted giving newspapers tips about the sex lives of Hollywood stars. Judgment in the case has been reserved.

original article found here

Jailed Over Online Blog Post

By T.J. Aulds

(TEXAS) The operator of a popular blog that keeps up with the happenings in Clear Lake Shores was arrested and charged because of a post he made on the site in February.

Allan Batchelor, owner of the Island Drumz blog, said his posting of the email address of the wife of a city council candidate is what got him in trouble.

Interim police Chief Kenneth Cook said Batchelor was charged with online impersonation, a Class A misdemeanor. Batchelor was arrested at his home Wednesday and posted a $2,500 bond.

Online impersonation is the state’s definition of online harassment.

Section 33.07 of the state penal code defines the infraction as, “A person commits an offense if the person, without obtaining the other person’s consent and with the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate or threaten any person, uses the name or persona of another person ... with the intent to harm or defraud any person.”

The Texas Legislature revised the law last session.

In Batchelor’s case, he’s accused of posting the email address of Barbara Nichols, wife of city council candidate John Nichols, and inviting people to send spam and computer viruses to the email.

“Harm was intended at that point,” Cook said.

Batchelor made the posting on his blog Feb. 21. Nichols filed a complaint March 16.

Cook, noting a tense political atmosphere in the city, said his office took the case to the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office, which agreed to press charges. The Clear Lake Shores City Council has been locked in disagreement mostly about the performance of City Administrator Paul Shelly, who, until recently, also was police chief.

Batchelor said he made the post, which has since been edited to delete Nichols’ email address, because he was upset she had used an email distribution list of his to send out emails to area residents and businesses.

Nichols, who confirmed she got the distribution list from Batchelor, said the email contained the council agenda packet and she sent it to make sure the public was aware of an approaching council meeting.

She also said she was unaware Batchelor had posted his spam comments and her email to his blog. That was until the spam started showing up in her inbox.

Spam is unsolicited email, usually promoting a commercial product or service.

“I got spammed,” she said. “I opened my email and had all this spam.”

Nichols also said she found out she was under attack by posters on the Island Drumz blog page.

“I am uncomfortable with being attacked,” she said. “It got to the point that disagreements are not civil anymore. They come with threats, and I am fearful for what could happen to me.”

Nichols said she suspects she became an online target because she questions how the city was handling federal government contracts for disaster relief funds.

“I was arguing for more transparency,” she said. “Then I was attacked. I feel like this hate mongering is parallel to bullying that we tell our kids not to do. That’s what it is, a lot of bullying.”

original post found here

Men Show Up Wanting Sex After 'Ex Posted Fake Craigslist ads'

By Mark Duell

(U.S.A.) A jilted boyfriend allegedly placed a series of fake adverts on Craigslist that appeared to be from his pregnant ex-girlfriend asking men for sex.

Andre Flom, 31, of Portland, Oregon, put up ads with her number and address - and up to 20 men would arrive at her home for sex, police said.

Postings under the name of Catlin Moser, 29, said ‘hit me up - I’m super horny’ and that she wanted ‘guys to take turns giving it to me good’.

The posts also asked people to remove a Japanese maple tree and a play structure from her garden, reported the Smoking Gun website.

‘He was posting my name, my phone number and my address on Craigslist for really obscene sex parties,’ Ms Moser told Fox affiliate KPTV. I was having men showing up at my house all hours of the night.'

He even allegedly posted the contact details of Ms Moser’s mother, who said she would get around 100 obscene text messages in five minutes. ‘The kinds of things that were being said were pretty obscene,’ the mother told CBS affiliate KVAL. ‘He'd set up times for them to come over.’

CONTENT OF THREE ADS ON CRAIGLIST

'What's up, my name's Catlin and I’m very real, looking for a sexy guy to come give me what I need, hit me up - I'm super horny'

'Having a party tonight at my house: encourage single guys to come through, lots of beer and single women, here is a recent pic of me, my name's Catlin, let's go boys'

'Hey, so I'm at home bored, lookin for a guy, or guys to take turns givin it to me good'

It began in October after Flom was convicted of domestic violence and more than 35 adverts were posted on the listings website, police said. Flom was convicted of strangling Ms Moser, who has a two-year-old son, last autumn and she won a restraining order against him.

One of the ads included her address, saying: ‘I’m very real, looking for a sexy guy to come give me what I need, hit me up - I’m super horny’. Another said she was ‘sitting at home bored’ wanting men to ‘give it to me good’ and was inviting people who ‘want to get a little dirty’.

Investigators subpoenaed Craigslist to give them records that showed nearly all of the fake adverts came from the same network location.

In a twist, investigators traced this to Flom’s next-door neighbour. But it turned out the man had an unsecured wireless router in his house. Police raided Flom’s home on Tuesday and took away a computer, modem and mobile phones, reported the Smoking Gun.

Flom was charged with computer crime and identity theft and is being held in Multnomah County jail in lieu of posting a $30,000 bond.

original article here

Felony Computer Misuse for Reading Wife's Email

An Internet law designed to protect the stealing of trade secrets and identities is being used to levy a felony charge against a Michigan man after he logged onto his then-wife's Gmail account and found out she was cheating.

Leon Walker, 33, of Rochester Hills, Mich., is being charged with felony computer misuse, and faces up to five years in prison after logging into the email account of now ex-wife Clara Walker on a shared laptop using her password, the Detroit Free Press reports.

He is facing a Feb. 7 trial. Leon and Clara Walker's divorce was finalized earlier this month, the Free Press reports.

Clara, who was married twice previously, was having an affair with her second husband, as Walker found in her email, according to the Free Press. The second husband had been arrested earlier for beating her in front of her young son from her first husband.

Walker was worried about more domestic violence from husband No. 2, so he handed the e-mails over to the child's father, the Free Press reports. He promptly filed an emergency motion to obtain custody.

Leon Walker, a computer technician with Oakland County, was arrested in February 2009, after Clara Walker learned he had provided the emails to her first husband.

"I was doing what I had to do," Leon Walker told the Free Press in a recent interview. He has been out on bond since shortly after his arrest. "We're talking about putting a child in danger."

Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper defended her decision to charge Walker, calling him a skilled "hacker" who downloaded the material in "a contentious way."

Electronic Privacy expert Frederick Lane told the Free Press that the case hinges in a legal grey area, and the fact that the laptop was shared may help Walker's cause.

About 45 percent of divorce cases involve some snooping -- and gathering -- of email, Facebook and other online material, Lane said. But he added that those are generally used by the warring parties for civil reasons -- not for criminal prosecution, the Free Press reports.

original article here

Felony Computer Misuse for Reading Wife's Email

An Internet law designed to protect the stealing of trade secrets and identities is being used to levy a felony charge against a Michigan man after he logged onto his then-wife's Gmail account and found out she was cheating.

Leon Walker, 33, of Rochester Hills, Mich., is being charged with felony computer misuse, and faces up to five years in prison after logging into the email account of now ex-wife Clara Walker on a shared laptop using her password, the Detroit Free Press reports.

He is facing a Feb. 7 trial. Leon and Clara Walker's divorce was finalized earlier this month, the Free Press reports.

Clara, who was married twice previously, was having an affair with her second husband, as Walker found in her email, according to the Free Press. The second husband had been arrested earlier for beating her in front of her young son from her first husband.

Walker was worried about more domestic violence from husband No. 2, so he handed the e-mails over to the child's father, the Free Press reports. He promptly filed an emergency motion to obtain custody.

Leon Walker, a computer technician with Oakland County, was arrested in February 2009, after Clara Walker learned he had provided the emails to her first husband.

"I was doing what I had to do," Leon Walker told the Free Press in a recent interview. He has been out on bond since shortly after his arrest. "We're talking about putting a child in danger."

Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper defended her decision to charge Walker, calling him a skilled "hacker" who downloaded the material in "a contentious way."

Electronic Privacy expert Frederick Lane told the Free Press that the case hinges in a legal grey area, and the fact that the laptop was shared may help Walker's cause.

About 45 percent of divorce cases involve some snooping -- and gathering -- of email, Facebook and other online material, Lane said. But he added that those are generally used by the warring parties for civil reasons -- not for criminal prosecution, the Free Press reports.

original article here