Father speaks out over false paedophile Facebook post
A father has spoken of his ordeal after being wrongly named as a paedophile on Facebook by a disgruntled neighbour.
Luke Chatfield was forced to leave his job, abused in the street and had a panic alarm installed at his home in Sale, Greater Manchester.
The father-of-three said his neighbour, Sally Pepper, posted the "evil lies" due to a dispute about her loud music.
A police spokesman said Ms Pepper was fined £80 for sending false messages likely to cause distress.
Ms Pepper posted the message on a Facebook vigilante site for sex offenders, which has since been removed.
She wrote: "I know another one, Luke Chatfield, he works in BBs cafe, Stretford Arndale."
Another user then responded with: "Anyone know his house number?"
Mr Chatfield only found out when someone told him about it at work.
'Constant abuse'
"I had to leave my job," he said, "It was too much to cope with, she had posted where I worked and I was getting constant abuse.
"We had snowballs pelted at my house and my three young children were even too scared to go in the front garden in case they saw her."
Mr Chatfield's wife Karen said she felt Ms Pepper had "got away with her evil lies".
Mr Chatfield, who also volunteers at his children's school, has a clean criminal record bureau (CRB) check and has never broken the law.
"Two of my children are disabled, my wife is registered disabled, and I have to make sure my family is fed.
"Losing about £1,500 in earnings after being forced out of my job has made life even more difficult.
"She has almost destroyed my life."
Ms Pepper told the BBC that she "was a nervous wreck" and wants to move house. She said she did not regret what she did.
A Greater Manchester Police spokesman added: "Officers spoke to a woman... about the offence and issued her with a fixed penalty notice for sending false messages likely to cause distress under the Communications Act.
"Both parties were in agreement with this course of action.
"The Sale Neighbourhood Policing Team has also been working with the housing trust in an effort to resolve any long-term issues between the neighbours."
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/8523103.stm
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12 comments:
Open and shut libel case.
Sue her into a lifetime of penury, it's the only way.
really gotta wonder what the hell is with the random strangers who read something on facebook and decide "I am gonna go pester this guy every free moment I have"
they are just as guilty
AfOR: Libel? You're wasting your time suing someone with no assets and there are certain exempt assets and property It's not like you can give a judgement to the sheriff and he can confiscate everything she has.This female probably doesn't even have a job but even if she does you can only garnish a tiny amount of her pay. All of this is costing you money. Barristers in England are paid hourly and are not permitted to work on contingency. In the US no lawyer would take the case on contingency unless the woman had assets and they knew they could win or settle a case.
This female is a good example of the basic viciousness of females in general. She did all of this over a dispute about turning her music down to a nice man with disabled kids and wife. You'll notice that females are cowards and will never do this stuff to some guy who looks like he might beat them. How many Mafia types or really tough guys have ever been falsely accused by a female?
I wrote an article on this here:
http://therightsofman.typepad.co.uk/the_rights_of_man/2010/02/want-to-ruin-a-mans-life-thatll-be-80-please.html
Sue! Sue! Sue! Sue!
That woman-pedophile should have to pay. (I think she's projecting!)
Notice how a guy getting accused of something is put at constant risk of attacks.
But there is no vigilantism for a female that does stuff like this.
As far as the suing goes I agree it's a joke.
What she did was perfectly legal.
The only justice that would be served is if other people took the law into their own hands.
It is about time that a man's life was worth something!
What she did was not perfectly legal. That's called 'defamation of character.'
Anon above me
I KNOW it's not perfectly legal!
What I'm saying is that because she is a woman it is TREATED as being perfectly legal.
If I had it my way she would be serving a long prison sentence.
Here in the United States 93%+ of all people in prison are male....laws just do not apply to women.
You don't understand the Law if you think being broke is some sort of protection from a massive judgement landing in your lap.
You don't understand the Law if you think the only point in suing someone is to get a huge wad of cash for compo.
You don't understand the Law if you don't realise that every judgement against you makes the next judgement far easier to get.
In a case like this it doesn't need a lawyer, it is as plain and obvious as can be, why I said "open and shut" so for the grand sum of ten UK pounds he could take her to court, guaranteed win, damages awarded, and here is the good bit, injunctive relief awarded, with penal notice attached.
"really gotta wonder what the hell is with the random strangers who read something on facebook and decide "I am gonna go pester this guy every free moment I have"
they are just as guilty"
Yes, it takes at least two to lie: one to lie, and one to listen.
False rape accusations would be way less common if people weren't so quick to believe them.
Afor
I posted this in the other thread also I wanted to make sure you saw it.
I'm in the U.S. I understand you are not and maybe things are different where you are at.
But I have actually seen the inside of how civil suits work. I had someone close to me on a jury trial for one.
The person suing was injured very badly 30+ years ago. This was the THIRD TIME THAT HE WON and HAS NEVER RECEIVED A PENNY.
And the judgments that he won were huge every time.
The OJ Simpson case is another example. He gets sued for double murder and looses a 25 million suit and how much did the families suing him get? Probably VERY little if anything. If I remember right I think they sold one of his trophies while he was still living in a multi-million dollar house.
I think these false claims of rape and sexual crimes should be a serious criminal offence and should result in prison sentences.
That is the only way there will be a deterrent. Right now 99.999% get away with absolutely nothing.
Don't get me wrong I'm on your side!
I just have some personal experience with civil suits and I think the way things stand here in the U.S. at least that civil suits are a joke and you likely will not recover anything...if you are a guy of course.
I hope you do sue your false accuser and win a huge amount of money...you deserve it!
If that happened to me I would want to sue also...I just doubt the way things stand here in my country that I would ever get anything out of it even if I won.
BTW
I think you were taking my post as some sort of an insult....I'm behind you and ever other falsely accused guy...I'm just saying how I see the reality of civil suits that's all.
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