01 July 2021

Sentencing of troll who targeted Tory MP deferred due to Covid contact

01 July 2021

The sentencing of an abusive troll who sent threatening messages to a Conservative MP has been postponed after he claimed to have been in close contact with someone who has Covid-19.

Former Dundee hospital worker Reece Cuthbert admitted sending abusive Facebook messages to Ross Thomson in July 2019, when he was the MP for Aberdeen South.

Cuthbert, of Haddington Avenue, Dundee, was due to appear at Dundee Sheriff Court on Thursday morning to be sentenced for sending messages to Mr Thomson that were “grossly offensive” and of “indecent, obscene or menacing character”.

But his lawyer told the court the 26-year-old said he was unable to attend because “he had been in close contact with someone with Covid and had been told to self-isolate and take a test”.

The lawyer produced evidence that Cuthbert had taken a test last Friday, though he claims not to have had the result yet.

Asked by Cuthbert’s lawyer to set his “cynicism and scepticism aside”, Sheriff Gregor Murray agreed to defer sentencing to Friday July 9.

The best videos delivered daily

Watch the stories that matter, right from your inbox