Prosecutors target first 'Facebook harassment' conviction

Poke, poke, poke, poke, poke, poke...

A Birmingham man is set to be the first in the UK to stand trial for harassment using Facebook.

Michael Hurst, 33, of Edgbaston, has pleaded not guilty to harassing ex-girlfriend Sophie Sladden. Appearing before magistrates, he was granted conditional bail to stand trial later in March, The Birmingham Mail reports.

He is accused of a breach of the Harassment Act 1997 when he used Facebook to contact Sladden on 21 January.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "We have prosecuted harassment cases before where people have sent letters, made phone calls, and even text messages in recent years, but to my knowledge this is the first case where a website like Facebook has been involved."

Hurst and Sladden's Facebook accounts have been deleted from the site. ®