A man found guilty of sending a menacing tweet threatening to blow up an airport has won a challenge against his conviction.
Paul Chambers, 28, from Doncaster, who now lives in Northern Ireland, was found guilty in May 2010 of sending a "menacing electronic communication".
Mr Chambers tweeted he would blow up Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire when it was closed after heavy snow.
After a hearing at the High Court in London his conviction was quashed.
'Obvious joke'
Mr Chambers said later: "I am relieved, vindicated - it is ridiculous it ever got this far.
"I want to thank everyone who has helped, including everyone on Twitter."
Mr Chambers said he had sent the tweet, which contained swear words, to his 600 followers in a moment of frustration after Robin Hood Airport, near Doncaster, was closed by snow in January 2010.
He said he had never thought anyone would take his "silly joke" seriously.
The message Mr Chambers tweeted stated: "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"
Justice Owen and Mr Justice Griffith Williams, said: "If the person or persons who receive or read it, (the message) or may reasonably be expected to receive, or read it, would brush it aside as a silly joke, or a joke in bad taste, or empty bombastic or ridiculous banter, then it would be a contradiction in terms to describe it as a message of a menacing character."
Mr Chambers, who is originally from Corby, Northamptonshire, was fined £385 and ordered to pay £600 costs after being convicted at Doncaster Magistrates' Court in May 2010.
