Chorley man jailed over offensive April Facebook comments (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Chorley man jailed over offensive April Facebook comments

3:36pm Monday 8th October 2012 in News

A man who posted "despicable" comments on his Facebook page about missing youngster April Jones has been jailed for 12 weeks.

Matthew Woods, 19, from Chorley, Lancashire, made a number of derogatory posts about April and missing Madeline McCann after getting the idea from Sickipedia - a website that "trades in sick jokes".

Among his comments was: "I woke up this morning in the back of a transit van with two beautiful little girls, I found April in a hopeless place."

Another read: "Who in their right mind would abduct a ginger kid?"

Others stated "I love April Jones" and "Could have just started the greatest Facebook argument ever. April Fools, Who Wants Maddie?"

He also wrote comments of a sexually explicit nature about the five-year-old who went missing last week from near her home in Machynlleth, mid Wales.

Unemployed Woods was arrested for his own safety on Saturday night and was remanded in custody ahead of his appearance at Chorley Magistrates' Court today where he pleaded guilty to sending by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive.

Chairman of the bench, Bill Hudson, said Woods's comments were so serious and "abhorrent" that it deserved the longest sentence they could pass, less a third to give credit for his early guilty plea.