De minimis

Paul Chambers' absurd conviction for sending an ill-judged joke tweet has finally been quashed.  (Jack of Kent has covered the case extensively.)   After the judgment, a spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said:

Following our decision to charge Mr Chambers, both the magistrates' court and the crown court, in upholding his conviction, agreed that his message had the potential to cause real concern to members of the public, such as those travelling through the airport during the relevant time.  Neither the courts nor ourselves thought it relevant that no member of the public is known actually to have been so concerned.

Presenting our case obliged those courts and the High Court, as well as the defendant and his lawyers and supporters, to waste an extraordinary amount of time and money, and caused real damage and distress to an actual person, the defendant. We have noted and accepted the court's reasoning in quashing the conviction.  All of us responsible for this case at the CPS resign our positions with immediate effect, being resolved to spend the rest of our lives in poverty, doing such good works as we can, in the hope of mitigating in some small way the damage we have done.

There seem to be some not insignificant transcription errors in the BBC's reporting of the statement.