Topic: Journalist jailed for hoax mountain rescue call (Read 8564 times)

LandyLiam · « **on:** November 05, 2010 »

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Journalist jailed for false Skiddaw rescue call

A journalist who made hoax calls to mountain rescuers for a story in the aftermath of the Cumbria floods has been jailed for three months.

Sarah Crickmer, of South Shields, made calls claiming a climber was stranded in Skiddaw to "test" rescuers, West Allderdale magistrates were told.

The 27-year-old was found guilty of two charges of sending false messages to cause annoyance or anxiety.

The calls were made in November 2009 during the aftermath of the floods.

The freelance reporter had been trying to show climbers were not being helped because of the floods, the court heard.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11399466

It just beggars belief that someone would do this :'( fitting punishment though

LennyJ1 · « **Reply #1 on:** November 05, 2010 »

she should of got longer

Hunter · « **Reply #2 on:** November 05, 2010 »

May sound a bit harsh but i would have gave her a year, it would teach people not to mess with emergency services there jobes is hard enough without twats like her ''testing'' them !

ChuckMcB · « **Reply #3 on:** November 05, 2010 »

More details:

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A FREELANCE journalist from North Yorkshire who made hoax emergency calls in the aftermath of last year’s Cumbria floods has been jailed for 105 days.

Sarah Crickmer, of Scarborough, was convicted earlier this month of two counts of sending false messages by a public communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety.

District judge Gerald Chalk, speaking at the hearing at Keswick Magistrates’ Court, said: “Police and mountain rescue played an essential role during the appalling floods. Frankly it is hard to imagine a more inappropriate time to make such malicious phone calls.”

The judge said he would have imposed a sentence of 84 days but had to increase it because of the aggravating feature of the timing.

Crickmer had drunk several pints of lager in the lounge of the Lyzzick Hall Hotel at Underskiddaw on November 26 last year before making three calls to mountain rescuers about the fake emergency, along with two calls to police – only seven days after the severe floods hit West Cumbria.

She claimed that a walker with a broken leg was stranded on Skiddaw, prompting 30 Keswick rescuers to spend an hour and a half preparing for a rescue.

She eventually admitted she had made the story up and was arrested. A pre-written news story about a mountain rescue was later found on her laptop.

(source)

LandyLiam · « **Reply #4 on:** November 05, 2010 »

Seems she has a few issues with the old Buckfast, i feel a bit sorry for her now, maybe a bit of community service with a mountain rescue team might have been appropriate, but there does need to be a strong message sent out to hoaxers

Here's another hoax i found while trawling the net, completely different situation, just a bit of thoughlessness gone wrong

http://climbing.about.com/b/2009/07/17/scottish-climber-fined-for-raising-false-alarm.htm

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We all do stupid things in the mountains and then there are the stupid things that strain credulity. Yesterday Paul Manchester, an experienced British climber from Cheshire, was fined £600 for sheer stupidity.

Back on February 9, the 47-year-old Manchester, a veterinarian by trade, climbed 3,218-foot Slioch above Loch Maree in the Scottish Highlands. It was rare clear and sunny day in the mountains, an absolutely perfect day for tramping up a Highland peak. Manchester, climbing the peak with nine climbing club buddies, told the Dingwell Sheriff Court in Scotland at his hearing, "It was a beautiful day with blue skies and no wind. We were having a great time."

That great time began to sour after the group reached the mountain summit. Exhilarated by the mountain air and the day's beauty, Mr. Manchester, a bit of a trickster, pulled an adolescent prank and stamped out the word "HELP" in massive 12-foot-high letters in the pristine snow. "Coming back down we were making deep tracks in the snow and just in the spur of the moment as a joke among friends I thought I would spell out the word 'HELP,'" he told the court. "There was no intention of a hoax."

One of the party asked the sensible question, "What if someone sees it?" But the blokes decided that no one would see the mischief and began their descent. Four miles away, however, bed-and-breakfast owners Tom and Liz Forrest spotted the four-letter word and rightly rang authorities.

Within minutes the Torridon Mountain Rescue Team as well as a coast guard helicopter were called out and on their way to Slioch. The rescue team, ascending the mountain a scant 40 minutes after the prank, spotted the descending climbers and one rescuer asked them if they knew of an emergency up higher. Sheepishly, Paul Manchester admitted that he knew something about it and confessed, "'Yes, I did it.' I was immediately distraught - more so when he said the police were involved and that they had actioned a helicopter."

The search was immediately called off but not before £5,500 or $9,000 was spent mobilizing the helicopter and rescuers. Manchester was, of course, distraught and remorseful for his dumb actions. Local authorities charged him with culpable and reckless conduct but he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of breach of the peace.

Yesterday Manchester was fined £600. He apologized to the rescue team and offered to make a donation of £2,000. They turned it down but asked that the money be given instead to the local Highland Hospice, which lost over a million dollars in the past year that had been invested in a failed Icelandic bank in the financial crisis.

While Paul Manchester did an inexcusable, stupid, and adolescent action by raising a false alarm, he did the adult thing by taking responsibility for his actions. As he told the court, "It's very embarrassing and I'm full of regret. I've not been up a mountain since."

So always be careful when you're flashing lights around the mountains or even shouting, heard of an incident in the Mournes once when Mountain Rescue where called out after it was reported someone was shouting for help in some strange gully or something, it turned out to be rock climbers calling to each other.

darren · « **Reply #5 on:** November 07, 2010 »

she deserves to get jail for this.

why on earth she thought it would be fun i cant understand.

RedLeader · « **Reply #6 on:** November 07, 2010 »

I think she was after a sensationalist story about how the adventure race would monopolise the time of the Mountain Rescue Teams leaving them unable to cover their normal duties.

Quote from: darren on November 07, 2010

she deserves to get jail for this.

why on earth she thought it would be fun i cant understand.

darren · « **Reply #7 on:** November 08, 2010 »

So always be careful when you're flashing lights around the mountains or even shouting, heard of an incident in the Mournes once when Mountain Rescue where called out after it was reported someone was shouting for help in some strange gully or something, it turned out to be rock climbers calling to each other.

[/quote]

what happened was any court action taken.

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LandyLiam

Journalist jailed for hoax mountain rescue call

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