SPEAK email student cautioned
The Oxford student arrested at the end of last term for sending a malicious email to animal rights group SPEAK has been released with a caution by the Thames Valley Police. The 20-year-old male, whom The Oxford Student has decided not to name for security reasons, emailed SPEAK threatening to kill a cat for every post made on its website. The email was accompanied by a photograph of a dead cat that the student claimed to have tortured.
SPEAK reported the incident to the TVP, who arrested the perpetrator on suspicion of malicious communication and released him on bail, pending further enquiries, until March 21st, when he appeared at St Aldate’s police station and was released with a caution. A spokesperson for the TVP said, “This individual acted in a way which was utterly insensitive and deliberately provocative.
He may have seen his actions simply as a joke, but he caused a great deal of distress to people visiting the website.” Mel Broughton, a spokesperson for SPEAK, said he thought the case should have been taken more seriously by the police. “I don’t think a caution was enough. I’m sure if it had been the other way around and a member of SPEAK had sent such an email they would not have got away so lightly.
“At the end of the day what the student was advocating was cruelty to animals, which is illegal and should not be tolerated.” Although the student will not face sentencing, the caution will remain on his record, and if he is charged with a crime in the future it will be taken into account. In addition he could still be punished by university authorities.
A spokeswoman for the university said: “We take such actions by our members extremely seriously, and now that the Thames Valley Police process has concluded, the university Proctors will be investigating this matter.” Clerk to the Proctors Dr Brian Gasser was unable to comment on the details of the case, but said, “If a student does not receive a criminal conviction then the Proctors are not obliged to take action under university statutes.
“However, if the student has been cautioned for an offence that is a breach of law and potentially a breach of university regulations, then once police action is concluded the Proctors are free to consider the case, a process which could potentially result in anything from a formal warning to expulsion.
The offending email was sent in the early hours of February 24th, and stated, “To prove that I am not bluffing, I hit a stray cat on the head with a baseball bat, but it wasn’t quite dead, so I put it in an old cage I use for torturing hamsters and threw it around a bit. “Then I took the attatched [sic] picture on my mobile phone. I was thinking of posting the cats I’ve killed to you, but what address shall I post them to? Please let me know.
It was reproduced in full on the SPEAK website, along with information about its source, and a statement from the group which read, “Let no one be in any doubt: the sentiment expressed by the person who wrote this is common place amongst those that both support and kill animals in a fraudulent scientific practice. “The email might be a sick joke, or it might not be. Regardless, it clearly illustrates the type of individuals that support vivisection.
The publication of the email sparked a security alert in the college in question on Sunday of 7th week, with officers from the Thames Valley Police watching the college entrances for much of the night, and the university marshal called in to advise on the situation. College authorities decided that the student should be asked to spend some time to avoid endangering the welfare of other students, and he left the same evening.
This paper understands that although the police cars had left the college by early the next morning, security at the college remained high in the following days.
20th Apr 2006