A twisted teenage who used Facebook to claim he had carried out sex acts on the body of missing Welsh schoolgirl April Jones has avoided a prison sentence.
Sam Busby, 18, told magistrates he was “looking for attention” when he made a string of sexually explicit comments about the five-year-old – who is now presumed murdered.
April went missing from outside her home in Machynlleth, Powys in Wales, on October 1 and despite a huge search, her body has never been found.
But call centre worker Busby put a warped joke about the little girl on the social-networking site on October 6 – the day prime suspect Mark Bridger was charged with April’s murder.
Worcester Magistrates Court heard the 18-year-old posted on his page: “All these April Jones jokes are getting old, unlike her.”
He then made another comment saying: “In butt hard.”
When another user said “too soon”, the warped teen replied: “F****** her dead body was too soon but it didn’t stop me.”
And when someone else told Busby he could have caught something, he said: “Doesn’t matter, had sex. And I caught something, night fever.”
Remarkably, when one sickened user said: “You’re f****** messed in the head”, he just replied with: “No I f***** her in the head.”
The teen pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to using a public communication network to send a message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character.
He was sentenced to six weeks in prison suspended for 18 months and ordered to pay £185 court costs.
Chairman of the bench Gill Porter said: “You will realise by the length of time we have taken how seriously we view this.
“You caused an immense amount of distress not only to the recipients of this but to April Jones’ family and friends.
“It happened at a sensitive time for everybody concerned.
“You were warned by your friends but you took no notice and you continue to make further even more offensive comments.
“They were grossly offensive.”
Busby, who appeared in court wearing a grey shirt with a poppy pinned to the front, was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and made subject to a 7pm-7am curfew for eight weeks.
Kerry Lovegrove, prosecuting, told the court Busby was arrested after one Facebook user reported him to police because she was so sickened by his comments.
She said: “She felt so shocked and sickened that she reported the matter to the police.
“She states that she was distressed by the comments as she herself has two young girls.
“The defendant was later interviewed where he admitted posting the joke. He admitted that he had further put the offensive comments.
“He told police he was an immature teenager and it was an attempt to get attention.”
The court heard Busby told officers he thought his page could only be viewed by friends but admitted a couple of comments had come from people he did not know.
Belinda Ariss, defending, said: “He is 18-years-old. He lives with his mother, his stepfather and two brothers.
“They are at court today but he is so ashamed of what he has done he’s asked them to stay outside the court room.
“His parents and brothers don’t know what he posted on Facebook but they know it must be bad.
“When he posted the initial joke it was a joke he had found elsewhere on a joke website and momentarily he thought it was funny.
“He is extremely immature. Anybody with any sense of maturity would have left it at that. Stupidly he didn’t, he continued the responses.
“He’s extremely sorry, he’s extremely ashamed. He can’t believe the extra stress he would have caused the family of April Jones.”
Busby had no previous convictions and works full time as an inbound sales advisor for Serco BPO.
But the court heard he may lose his job as a result of the conviction or because the curfew will restrict his ability to work shifts.
He also plays drums for local band Dakota Ruins and describes himself as a “full-time loser” on his Twitter page.
Busby, from St John’s, Worcester, refused to comment outside court.
Au revoir, freedom of expression. Those who prosecuted are more arrogant and depraved than this man will ever be.
….What has the world come to that someone can even contemplate making such sick, depraved & unfeeling comments about this poor little girl….God only knows what her poor family are going through,without this….Close down all social networking sites, if that’s what it takes…
As for this ‘immature’ individual,…he got off far too lightly…I hope one day he will realise the appalling nature of what he did…
Something private between his friends on facebook has been taken by an individual, reported to the police, found its way into the media and then to the deceased’s family.
No different to airing a private conversation and leaking it.
Shocking aspect of the justice system that gives importance to social networking just because the BBC have a love in with it and promote its importance way and above the level of cotent that can be found there.
That someone could even be arrested for this ‘offence’ is a sick joke.
MIKE W Says.
NOVEMBER 16 AT 11.40 PM
It is a very sad world that we live in, when you get an individual sicko with nothing better to do than post these utterly depraved comments on Facebook. This guy got away too lightly in my opinion.
He should have been sent to prison, then he could spend some time with some people who would be only too glad to show him the error of his ways.
Immature teenager or not this person needs to be taught a valuable lesson. I cannot imagine what must have been going through people’s minds with regards to this mans sick comments.
Getting away with such cruel jokes isn’t right at all.
But naming and shaming him will probably cause him problems in his near future. I can’t see many turning a blind eye to this sick humour.
Should have got tıme ın prıson let the bıg boys do the perverted thıngs to hım.How sıckened hıs famıly must feel.Aprıls famıly must have been thouroughly devastated by thıs sıcko.Strıng hım up
This sad little country seriously needs a first amendment. Yes what this moron posted was “grossly offensive”. So what? The world is full of offensive things. The only reason why the girl’s family found out about it is because some busybody reported it to the police and it became a court case. Otherwise they would never found have known about it. A total waste of police and court time.