Twitter joke trial goes to High Court

All hope is not lost in the case of Paul Chambers, the man who joked on Twitter that he was going to blow up Doncaster's Robin Hood airport and got himself convicted on a charge of "menace". A high-powered human rights lawyer is to take his case to the High Court, to the delight of Chambers's many supporters, who include Stephen Fry and other TV personalities.

The story of the Twitter prank gone wrong made international headlines last month when Chambers lost his appeal against his original conviction.

That arose after he got frustrated at the airport being closed because of snow in January and tweeted: "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!".

Although the airport itself rated the threat "non credible", and the investigating police considered it merely a "foolish prank", Chambers ended up with a criminal conviction and fine for sending "a menacing electronic communication" - and lost his job as an accountant.

He expected the conviction to be withdrawn when he appealed earlier this month. Instead, the judge was unmoved by his "only a joke" defence, declared him an "unimpressive witness" and ordered him to pay a further £2,600 in costs on top of his original fine.

As a result, Chambers's case became an instant cause celebre, attracting support from comedians and TV personalities including Stephen Fry and Davina McCall. Then someone had the bright idea of starting a Spartacus-style campaign of re-tweeting Chamber's original 'Crap! Robin Hood is closed...' message. Thousands joined in, making #IAmSpartacus the most popular subject on Twitter.

Now Chambers has decided to go the High Court where his legal team will be led by Ben Emmerson QC, a human rights specialist at the high-profile Matrix chambers. There is no date set for the appeal, but it is likely to be early in the new year.

The First Post understands the appeal has been made possible by donations from some of Chambers's supporters and Matrix working at reduced fees.

Chambers says the decision to appeal is "probably to the detriment of my mental wellbeing" and that "it was very tempting to draw a line to be honest." But he's going for it anyway: apart from anything else, he'd like his job back. ·