An alleged post to the gossip platform Naked Departure landed a newly-wed in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
Office administrator Charlene Victoria Wharton, of Orange Hill, St James, faced the charge in relation to a female rival who later applied to the court for a protection order.
The 37-year-old Wharton was charged with, and pleaded not guilty to, the offence that she used a cellphone – an electronic device – to send an article which was menacing in character and intended to cause annoyance, inconvenience and distress to Rashida Clarke on September 24, last year. The charge was brought under Section 14 of the Computer Misuse Act which provides for a $10 000 fine or imprisonment of 12 months, or both, upon a summary conviction.
Magistrate Douglas Frederick released Wharton with a surety of $2 500 and the accused, who was not represented, returns to court on May 14.
The charge comes as Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite yesterday warned Barbadians that the full extent of the law would be brought to bear on people who publish false and defamatory information about other citizens.
Speaking during debate on the Telecommunications (Amendment) Bill 2017 in Parliament yesterday, he said he had a list of about 40 people who were in contravention of the Act and there would be prosecutions.
While Wharton was the first to be charged in relation to the Naked Departure website, it was not the first such charge under the act.
That first was laid in 2006 against a teenager for using a computer to send an electronic message that was obscene and intended to cause, or was reckless as to whether it caused, annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety to the person to whom he intended its content to be communicated. The boy allegedly sent a photograph with an obscene message attached in 2005.
Since then, a man was charged with allegedly posting a message on social media which was deemed to be “menacing in character” and which caused Minister of Transport and Works Michael Lashley “annoyance, distress and anxiety”. (HLE)
