Don't The Police Have Better Things To Do With Their Time?

Sadly, these days, the answer's 'Probably not'!

The boss of the missing persons charity supporting Jay Slater's family has vowed to wage war on cruel trolls who sent him misleading and untrue tip-offs about the youngster before he was found dead on Tenerife earlier this week.

Matthew Searle, chief executive of LBT Global, says he received hundreds of malicious emails, phone calls and messages with false information about the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer after he disappeared on June 17.

He has passed messages sent to him and Jay's mother, Debbie Duncan, to police to investigate under telecommunications laws.

And just how are they supposed to prove they are knowingly false reports? Since Britain is stuffed to the gills with young petty criminal chavs who all dress alike?  

The malignant messages included false ransom demands from people claiming to have Jay in their custody.

That one at least should be easy to prove! Even for UK police. 

Others included claims that Jay had been seen in a Sainsbury's in Basingstoke, watching a football match in Germany and on a Eurostar train. Mr Searle said the bad actors had delayed genuine investigations into Jay's disappearance because he had to 'follow up every single lead'.

Since he's not the police, but a private citizen sticking his oar in, it's be hard to prove that the actual search was hindered in any way... 

It is an offence under the Communications Act 2003 to send a false message that causes 'annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety to another'. Those found guilty of the offence can face up to six months in prison.

Many of those sending the cruel false tips did so using 'burner' SIM cards and single-use email addresses, making it harder for him to identify those who might be responsible.

So what are the police supposed to do? 

Mr Searle is, it seems, no lover of freedom of speech: 

Mr Searle, speaking to Sky News earlier this week, says he intends to speak to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper about the damage and hurt caused by online trolls who turned Jay's tragic disappearance into a true-crime free-for-all.

'Ultimately it hinders the search and it's terrifyingly horrible for a family that are going through this,' he said.

'Wherever there's a real-life crime drama acting out in front of our eyes on television, half the population need to jump on Facebook, set up a Facebook group… to tell the world "what really happened".

'It's really worrying to the point where our charity thinks it's time that it has to stop.'

Good luck with that, Mr Searle, I very much doubt even Labour are so bonkers they are going to go to war on Facebook on behalf of this 'cause'. Although one can never tell.