Questions over Criminal investigation as media threatened against identifying Court of Session Judge's son who told girl “Enjoy getting raped & stabbed” on twitter

NO action against son of Judge Lord Brailsford after twitter rape & stabbing threat to girl. CLAIMS journalists were ‘threatened’ by Scotland’s Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) over the outing of the son of a high ranking Court of Session judge who told a football player’s girlfriend she was going to “enjoy getting raped and stabbed in Glasgow” are being investigated.

 

The move comes after one journalist for a Scots law online website came forward and told Scottish Law Reporter he had been ‘quietly cautioned’ by Crown Office sources who said he would “receive no further cooperation from the Crown Office in press enquiries”.

 

The Sunday Mail newspaper reported the story on 9 September, however several other media outlets who attempted to make further enquiries with COPFS as to the identity of the 16 year old boy, identified online in various forums such as HERE, received no response.

 

The report in the Sunday Mail carried a comment from the boy’s father, who promised the paper “to deal with it”, yet in similar cases where threats of violence such as rape and the use of knives has been used on twitter or other social media, criminal investigations and charges have usually followed.

 

While Scottish Law Reporter will refrain from naming the boy, given the nature of the case and the clear threats of violence towards individuals made in a public arena, it is in the public interest to identify his father, who is none other than Court of Session judge Lord Brailsford, who recently sentenced a man to life for the brutal stabbing of 41-year-old Kenneth Andrews on a busy street in the east end of Glasgow.

 

in the light of the seriousness of the threats, and the apparent lack of any criminal investigation or even an attempt at any criminal investigation into the conduct of the judge’s son, questions are being raised as to whether Police & Scotland’s prosecutors are purposely dragging their feet over a case where there is clearly a public interest in the law being applied in the same force to the families of members of the judiciary as the law is applied to everyone else.

 

A legal insider told Scottish Law Reporter earlier today it was obvious from the content of the tweet there was enough to bring criminal charges against the author and rubbished the idea that Police Forces claims they could only investigate if a complaint had been mad to them.

 

Sunday Mail report : Son of High Court judge tells David Templeton's girlfriend: Enjoy getting raped in Glasgow

 

ROBYN WALKER was the target of a series of lurid and threatening messages sent when her boyfriend decided to move from Hearts to Rangers.

A HIGH Court judge’s son told Rangers star David Templeton’s girlfriend she was going to be raped after he signed for the Glasgow club.

The message sent to Robyn Walker from the Twitter account of the privately educated teenager said: “Enjoy getting raped and stabbed in Glasgow you wench.”

The 16-year-old’s father promised to “deal with it” when the message was brought to his attention by the Sunday Mail.

Police said they would investigate if any complaint was received.

Lawyers say the tweet could be an offence under telecom legislation.

Robyn was the target of a series of lurid and threatening messages sent when her boyfriend decided to move from Hearts to Rangers.

She said: “I was shocked when I got this tweet saying he wanted me raped and stabbed.

“It wasn’t nice but I have not complained to police.

“My friends said I should but I have decided not to take it any further.”

Templeton, 23, responded to the message and other threats on his Twitter page.

The Rangers star posted: “People slaughtering my gf! It’s embarrassing! She has nothing to do with what’s happened!”

The judge told us: “Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I will go and deal with it now.”

Both Lothian and Borders and Strathclyde Police said they can only investigate abusive comments made on social networking sites like Twitter if the targets complain to them.

A spokeswoman for the Strathclyde force added: “Our football co-ordination unit will view the tweet to see if any criminality occurred.”

Leading criminal lawyer Matthew Berlow said: “Anyone who leaves an offensive message on a social networking site such as Twitter could be breaching the Telecommunications Act.”

Templeton signed for Hearts in 2007 before joining Rangers on August 31.

His move attracted heavy criticism from Hearts fans.

The sinister tweets can be revealed just months after we told how another internet troll threatened to sexually attack an alleged rape victim on a football fans’s message board.

He posted anonymously that he would “violently rape” the mum as MPs voiced escalating concern at the threatening and women-hating content of many messages left on social network sites and message boards.

His post was just one of scores of bile-filled messages directed at the woman after she accused Blackburn Rovers footballer David Goodwillie of rape.

Charges were brought against the player but later dropped.

Last month a 37-year-old man was was charged with breach of the peace over the posts and is due to appear in court.