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news.com.au wrote:'Make a bomb threat or I'll miss my flight'
A YOUNG Australian woman triggered a bomb hoax and caused three aircraft to be delayed because she was running late for a flight, a British court has heard.

Angela Sceats, 19, originally from Sydney but now living in London, is on trial accused of falsely claiming there was a bomb aboard a Ryanair flight to Dublin from Stansted in England.
The waitress allegedly got a friend to call in a bomb threat on the flight she was trying to catch, the Press Association reported.

The court heard she sent her friend an SMS asking her to make a 999 call from a payphone, put on an accent and say a man was holding a gun to her head while she phoned in the bomb threat.

She was on her way to Stansted airport to catch a flight to Dublin, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

"It is, in effect, a hoax bomb call," prosecutor Noel Casey told the jury.


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"She caused a 999 call to be made, saying there was a bomb on this flight.
"In a slightly unusual way in that she got in touch with a friend of hers, Angela Forster, another Australian citizen living in Islington in London.

"She got in touch with her by way of, amongst other things, a text message from her mobile phone.

"She caused Miss Forster to believe there was a bomb on board that flight and it was Miss Forster who made the 999 call."

Ms Sceats has denied a charge of communicating false information with intent, PA said.

The court heard a tape recording of Ms Forster's 999 call to police.

Ms Forster was heard saying on the tape: "I just got a message from my friend who is meant to be boarding the 8.10am flight from London to Dublin.

"She has just messaged me to say I have got to call the police. There is a bomb on board."

Ms Forster spelled out the text message, telling police that it said: "Can you call the police. There is a bomb on board. The flight is 8.10. Leaving from Stansted. Going to Dublin. The number is 999. Do it now."

The message was allegedly followed by another text message saying the threat was "serious".

He said Ms Sceats had sent another text saying: "Absolutely. Hurry up. Do it from the payphone outside. Put on an accent. Tell them there is a man with a gun to your head telling you to make the phone call."

Ms Sceats told police under questioning at the airport: "It has all been a bit of a misunderstanding. I was running late for my flight. I knew I would not make it.

"I told her to get them to hold the plane up. Tell them there is a bomb on board. It's all just been a joke."

Jurors were told that police had considered closing the airport but after an officer spoke to Ms Sceats he decided there was no bomb threat and allowed flights to leave as normal.

Ms Sceats, who has pleaded not guilty, denies communicating false information with intent.

She says she told police she had been joking and that her friend had misunderstood.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said staff from the Australian High Commission had been in regular contact with Ms Sceats and her lawyer since her arrest.

She was released on bail on December 2.

The Morrigan wrote:Indeed. Let's gang up on Gandalf to demonstrate our mutual contempt for Sydneysiders.

Gandalf wrote:Bah, your attempt at gang-ness is no match for my Sydney trained criminal mind!

The Morrigan wrote:

Gandalf wrote:Bah, your attempt at gang-ness is no match for my Sydney trained criminal mind!

Steals Gandalf's lunch money.

news.com.au wrote:Student cleared over airport bomb scare
By Brian Farmer in London
August 03, 2005
From: Press Association
AN Australian student accused of triggering a bomb scare with a text message because she was running late for a plane has been cleared of communicating false information with intent.

Angela Sceats, 19, of Sydney, sent a text telling her friend and flatmate Angela Forster to "call the police and say there is a bomb on board" while she was on a train from London to Stansted Airport in November.
Ms Sceats, who was working as a waitress in London while travelling, told jurors at Chelmsford Crown Court that she had sent the message as a joke.

The jury returned a not guilty verdict after deliberating for around 30 minutes.

Ms Foster, who was living with Ms Sceats in Islington, north London, immediately rang 999 after receiving the text and told police what her friend had said in the message.

Police considered shutting down the airport before arresting Ms Sceats.

Jurors were told that Sceats was on her way to meet a friend at Stansted before catching a flight to Dublin.
They heard that police prevented three flights leaving Stansted for Dublin before interviewing Ms Sceats and concluding there was no terrorist threat.

Ms Sceats told the court: "This text was sent as a joke in order to make her laugh. I never thought she would take it seriously."

Ms Sceats said she and Ms Foster had been exchanging a series of joke texts.

"It was an extremely bad joke made in bad taste but it was never supposed to go farther than us two," Ms Sceats said.

"I never even knew that she took the text seriously until I got to the airport and I was on the phone to her and even then I didn't believe that she had called the police.

"I don't understand how she could have believed this was a serious text message. Where did she think I had got this information from?

"I had absolutely no idea she had taken it seriously."

Ms Foster, also Australian, did not give evidence during the trial.

Ms Sceats was remanded in custody after being charged in November, and spent three days at Holloway Prison in north London before being released on bail.

Jurors also heard that she was due to start university in Australia in March this year, but had lost her place because she had to remain in the UK while the trial was pending.

"Had she been found guilty she would have gone straight to prison," the judge told the court.

"This sort of offence is strongly disapproved of by the public."

The judge ruled that Ms Sceats should pay her own legal costs – estimated by legal sources to be about £15,000 ($34,802)