Once again amateur radio is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Porn_slur_leads_to_dock
Apparently, Gareth Evans (G4SDW?) emailed a school to say one of its teachers was a pornographer and a danger to children. The teacher of mathamatics, Brian Reay (G8OSN?) is also a ham and the two men fell out on internet forum. Mr Evans accused Mr Reay of being racist towards the Welsh after comments on an amateur radio forum. The mutual dislike persisted for some years before Mr Evans sort his revenge by making his unsubstantiated accusations to the school, which caused massive disruption and much distress to Mr Reay. Gareth Evans has been given a three-year conditional discharge by the court.
(Please note that the callsigns listed above are assumed correct but as yet are unconfirmed.)
This should be a lesson to all of us. Trolling on Internet forums may be taken as harmless banter by some but others may not see it the same way. Amateur radio is just a hobby and silly little remarks either on air or on line are simply not worth getting your blood pressure up. They certainly are not worth going to jail over or causing someone to loose their job, both of these scenarios being a possible outcome of the above tiff.
Sadly comments such as those expressed by both parties can also be heard "on air" at times, I am surprised that more people have not been taken to court for making allegations, a sign of things to come perhaps?
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