Springfield man sent grossly offensive Tweet

Craig Lawson sent the “grossly offensive” message on the social networking site on June 17 – less than 24 hours after Mrs Cox died.

And at Dundee Sheriff Court he was given to a 225 hour community payback sentence.

Lawyers for Lawson claimed the message was not sent in response to the murder, but was simply a coincidence.

Sheriff Alastair Brown said that was “extraordinarily hard to accept”, though, given the blanket media coverage of her killing.

The court heard that Lawson sent the “a dead MP is a good MP” Tweet after “a rant” about MPs’ expenses.

The message was spotted by political activist Gregor McAbery, who was so appalled by it that he contacted police, who traced Lawson to his home at Arthur Place, Springfield,

Lawson pleaded guilty to a charge of sending by means of a public electronic communications network a message that was grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing.

Joseph Paterson, defending, said Lawson’s position was that he had not heard of Mrs Cox’s death before he sent the message.

But Sheriff Brown said it was: “difficult to imagine a more offensive message than the one you sent.

“To applaud the death of anyone is a hateful thing to do. To do so publicly is appalling.

“You did that only 24 hours after Jo Cox MP was killed. It has been said on your behalf that, at the time you posted this piece of nastiness, you did not know about what happened to her. “That is extraordinarily hard to accept. Her death had been headline news for 24 hours.”