Accused Ottawa Cyberbully Facing 181 Charges Apologizes

Freshly Exhumed writes The day Robert James Campbell quit his job, he went home and started plotting revenge against everyone he felt had wronged him in life. He says he didn't leave his Ottawa apartment for seven months. The online campaign of harassment and hatred he's accused of launching spanned more than a decade. He is accused of creating fake online profiles to destroy reputations in short order, presenting his targets to the world as child predators, members of a Nazi party, exotic dancers and prostitutes. Police roused Campbell on the morning of July 31 and arrested him on 181 charges of criminal harassment, identity theft and defamatory libel. Campbell publicly apologized to his alleged victims and says he has instructed his lawyer to file a guilty plea.

Comments

Traditional crimes

[Anonymous Coward]

Notice that they didn't have to invent any new charges for this just because it was on the Internet.
Current law covers all this sort of thing.

Re:Traditional crimes

[gatfirls]

Free expression includes this?

Anonymously emailing false comments that a woman was having marital problems
Suggesting another woman had an abortion instead of a miscarriage
Creating a fake Facebook profile of a man whom he said was abused as a child
Falsely suggesting a man had committed crimes and that information was sent to relatives outside the country
Anonymously mailing false comments that a man supported the Nazi party and was a pedophile
Making false claims that a woman had produced pornography and engaged in bizarre sexual acts
Creating a false online profile suggesting a woman worked as an exotic dancer

Re:Traditional crimes

[bsDaemon]

I think the term you are looking for is 'civil law', not 'letter of the law'. US legal system at the federal level is heavily influenced by common law, as it is in most states. States which cover areas originally colonized by France or Spain have a tradition of civil law.

https://www.law.berkeley.edu/l...
http://www.economist.com/blogs...

The history of common law in the US is why you'll hear in trial coverage or in shows like law & order, lawyers will use precedents when raising their objections or filing motions. This is usually called 'case law', as it is law which hasn't been written by the legislature, but which has come into common practice as a result of a judge interpreting a written law and setting a precedent. If subsequent judges agree to that ruling, eventually it because sort the way things are, until the Supreme Court weighs in, or the legislature spells it out (in a statute).

Re:Traditional crimes

[geekoid]

No, it isn't.
Freedom of speech does not mean you have no repercussion for lying about people. It never has/

Online libel can be quite harmful

[sirwired]

Poisoning Google searches for your targets can most certainly ruin lives, in many cases in an irrevocable fashion if the information gets republished far and wide. I don't see why prison time should not be on the table.

Re: What about his "victims'" actions?

[ottcanon]

He was not harassed at all. Source: I worked at the same place with him for about six months before he quit. And I seriously doubt that the children he targeted harassed him. And I seriously doubt that there was some sort of conspiracy of 38 people from 3 different countries harassing him. He is simply looking for a way to mitigate his inevitable sentence. He would be happily harassing away if he hadn't been arrested. This guy deserves serious jail time. A convenient jail house realization that what he was doing was bad.