A man has admitted making grossly offensive comments on his Facebook page about missing youngster April Jones.

Matthew Woods, 19, from Chorley, Lancashire, made a number of derogatory posts about April and missing Madeline McCann after getting the idea from Sickipedia - a website that "trades in sick jokes".

He also wrote comments of a sexually explicit nature about the five-year-old who went missing last week from near her home in Machynlleth, mid Wales.

Chorley Magistrates' Court heard members of the public were so upset about his postings that they reported them to the police.

A "vigilante mob" of around 50 people later descended upon his home address in Eaves Lane and the defendant was arrested on Saturday night at a separate address for his own safety.

Martina Jay, prosecuting, said: "When interviewed by police he fully admitted he posted messages about the two missing children.

"He started this idea when he was at a friend's house when drinking, saw a joke on Sickipedia and changed it slightly.

"He said he did it in a bid to make people think his account had been hacked. He said it got out of hand and he was drunk while doing it."

He conceded to police that his Facebook account - available to a large number of people - had not been hacked and that he was responsible for all the postings made on October 3 and 4.

Unemployed Woods entered a guilty plea to sending by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive.

After meeting his client for the first time, defending solicitor David Edwards told the bench: "What struck me immediately is that the enormity of what he has done has finally sunk in.

"He did seem genuinely remorseful and regretful for what he had done."

The solicitor said Woods explained what had started as a joke had gone wrong.

"His future is uncertain. He does not know whether he can go back to his home address. He fully accepts he was the author of his own misfortune," Mr Edwards added.

He asked for a community service order to be considered but the bench was told that custody could be imposed for anyone who is convicted of using extreme language that causes substantial distress or fear to another.

The bench asked for a pre-sentence report from a probation officer and said it would keep all options open ahead of sentencing, which will take place later.

shocking!!!! this man is a sicko.

He got jailed for 12 weeks.

What a sick fool.

Disgusting despicable scumbag.

he should of got alot longer than 12 weeks

Having misplaced my granddaughter in the school playground for two minutes and having my heart stop I cant for the life of me understand these people.What this poor girls family are going through is horrendous and sickos making jokes they can do without.

Sickipedia owners should be done to. and the took off the web

iv never heard of this Sickipedia site (and i dont want to read it now i know) so why has it been allowed and not been shut down, it just wrong on all levels

I agree that his thoughts are sick/vile and will not attempt to justify his thinking.

I will say though that we have freedom of speech, on Facebook you are posting to your friends so it's between them to say if they take offence to it, if he had said it indoors to them he wouldn't be in jail.

Dont agree with people being punished for their views.

it's interesting that you hadn't heard of it, let alone looked at it and you want it shut down??

as the above post says...free speech

i agree mr hanky, its all about free speech.

Exactly!

In private fair enough, but in the view of public, No!

This lads going to get a lot more punishment due to the media coverage, it would not surprise me if the judge gave him a custodial sentence for his own safety.

Don't forget, Facebook is not only viewable to your friends but it's viewable to the general public.

Freedom of speech doesn't come into it in these circumstances.

sick barstard.

I would argue that facebook is private between you and your friends in what you say, the only way other can read it is by looking at your wall, only your friends see everything you say.

That to me would be like listening through someones letter box at their private conversations then reporting them for you being offended.

On here it's a public forum, on facebook and twitter it's private in my opinion and people choose to read it or not, reminds me of those who moan about tv programmes after the warnings beforehand.

Crazy mad world

so what you do behind your own front door is ok. NO

I don't agree that freedom of speech gives you the right to be grossly offensive. If he'd said some thing racist which is also grossly offensive, is that ok too under the guise of free speech?

There are lines in all walks of life that shouldn't be crossed. IMHO.

My views aired in private behind closed doors should, if I said I was going to Bomb place A then place B fair enough if someone reports it but having an opinion between friends should stay that way.

When I happen to use Facebook which in my opinion is a load of shite and should be withdrawn from the net due to it being a government controlled site so they can keep tabs on people, I have noticed that you read a friend post every one else who has commented can see it too.

This guy would of been exposed through what they call a "page" to do with the youngster. Someone would of seen his sick comments and posted it on the page comments for it to go viral and get recognised hence him being in custody now.

Facebook is public.

Besides, some things you don't joke about.

face book is not behind closed doors and sick is sick, I did not hear about this on that site, but on the news.

all I can say any so called friends of his, who don't take offence to his sick vile jokes, must have the same depraved sense of humour.

I too believe in free speech, I do not condone what this man said about April or Madeline but it was only words, they may not have been appropriate at all and 100% sick in content, but it was only words!
What is the difference between jokes we've all heard (and probably retold) about Rod Hull when he died falling from the roof? Or in fact, Joan Rivers who has made jokes about 9-11 on tv?
Also, try googling the Westboro Baptist Church in USA who make the most vile comments about people who have died and turn up at funerals of servicemen with banners and placards causing nothing but more heartbreak for the families, yet they are not in prison because all they are doing is practicing freedom of speech (according to the judge who ruled against the father of one soldier who took them to court for such appalling behaviour)

We are turning into a world of people who become 'offended' by the slightest thing these days instead of treating the so called offending words with the contempt they deserve and simply ignoring them.
This person should not be in prison for words no matter how awful they were, and by putting him in there I feel we are moving down a very slippery slope

Elizabeth you say it's only words but if they'd been racist or homophobic, people would have fully expected him to be arrested so where do you draw the line?

Zubee, have you seen the homophobic slurs that are openly spewed by the Westboro baptist church? They are never arrested. Things such as "you're dead because you're gay and god's glad about that" and this is openly shouted at funerals of servicemen.
Again, as I said I do not agree with that person who wrote horrific things about April & Madeline but he wasn't shouting it in the streets, it was on a website and if it hadn't been on the news, how many of us would have known about it? I'd never even heard of sickipedia or whatever it's called and I'll bet no-one on here had either.

The moment we start jailing people for writing stuff on websites even if they are racist or homophobic comments(and don't forget this lad was allegedly pissed out of his mind when he wrote them) then god help us all.

People who posted about rioting in recent troubles were jailed , only words ???

The difference is though, whether they posted things that actually stated they were involved in the riots or did they just talk about the fact that the riots had taken place? If they admitted their involvement then that's completely different to just talking about them, and therefore were rightfully jailed.
But if the postings about April and Maddie did not admit any involvement with the abductions, then I still don't agree that he was jailed