Teenager accused of text message bomb hoax

THREE flights to Dublin were halted after an Australian student’s text message triggered a major bomb alert in London, a court heard yesterday.

An Australian gap year student accused of triggering the bomb scare with a mobile phone text because she was running late for a plane to Dublin told a jury that her message was a “stupid joke”.

Angela Sceats, aged 19, of Sydney, Australia, sent a text telling her best 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 Forster, who was living with Ms Sceats in Islington, north London, immediately rang 999 to report the text message, and police considered shutting down the airport for fear of a terrorist attack.

Ms Sceats, who was working as a waitress in London during a break from travelling, denies communicating false information with intent.

She told Chelmsford Crown Court: “This text was sent to her (Ms Forster) as a joke in order to make her laugh. I never thought she would take it seriously.”

During her train journey to Stansted, Ms Sceats said she texted Ms Forster to let her know that she was running late. She said they became engaged in a jokey text conversation.

“I am sitting on trains for so long and I was so bored and I was just wasting time sending stupid joke messages to her. She was sending me joke texts,” Ms Sceats told the court.

“It was an extremely bad joke made in bad taste but it was never supposed to go further than us two. 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 really believe that she had called the police.

“Where did she think I had got this information from? I’d absolutely no idea that she had taken it seriously.

“I would never go to the extreme of calling a bomb hoax just so I could get that one plane. In reality, it is just a plane to Dublin. I am not that kind of person. I never thought this would happen.”

Jurors have heard that Ms Forster replied to Sceats’ bomb text with a message saying: “Serious.”

Sceats had replied to that with a text saying: “Absolutely. Hurry up. Do it from the phone box outside. Put on an accent. Tell there is a man with a gun to your head telling you to make the phone call.”

Sceats told jurors that her second message was a continuation of the joke.

She said she had lost her university place as a result of being arrested and charged.

Staff from her old school had written references saying that Sceats had been a prefect and house captain and was “trustworthy and reliable” and “an excellent young woman”, jurors were told. The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict today.