Victims try to halt criminals from using Web sites

LONDON | The criminals are behind bars but their victims are still feeling their reach — through the Internet.

The British government said last week that Facebook had removed the profiles of 30 U.K. inmates at its request after several incidents in which prisoners reportedly used the social networking site to organize crime or taunt others.

The announcement made some Internet users worry about government interference online, but many crime victims said even more should be done.

“When someone is convicted of a crime, he loses his civil liberty through sentencing,” said Gary Trowsdale of Families United, a group founded by relatives of young murder victims. “We say he should use his cyberliberty as well.”

Families United met earlier last week with Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who said the government would act “to tackle those cases where offenders seek to taunt or harass victims and their families” through Web sites.

British prisoners are banned from using social networking sites like Facebook. Britain — unlike many European countries — bars almost all inmates from access to the Internet, except for educational purposes under supervision. But authorities acknowledge that some have used smuggled mobile phones to update their pages, or have gotten friends on the outside to do it for them.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported last month that Colin Gunn — a gangland boss convicted of conspiring to murder a couple in 2004 — warned on Facebook that “I will be home one day and I can’t wait to look into certain people’s eyes and see the fear of me being there.”

Jade Braithwaite, one of three men jailed for the stabbing death of London teenager Ben Kinsella, also had a page — now gone — with postings on his life in prison, including one saying he was “down but not out.” A photo also was posted to the site showing him wearing a “Free Jade Braithwaite” T-shirt.

Ben’s father, George Kinsella, said his wife and children had had to read “very distressing” comments on the Net.

“Ben’s sisters, younger sisters, look at Facebook regularly and my wife found it very distressing to read some of the comments that were being put on there on virtually a daily basis,” he told broadcaster ITV.

In other cases, escaped convicts have used Facebook to taunt the police. British burglar Craig “Lazie” Lynch became an Internet celebrity after he posted mocking messages and defiant photos on Facebook during four months on the run from a minimum security prison.

He was rearrested last month and sent back to jail.

Mr. Straw said Britain was looking to “raise the stakes against prisoners who seek to use these sites.” He said measures already introduced include body scanners in all jails to stop phones being smuggled in.

Mr. Straw said Facebook removed the 30 offenders’ sites within 48 hours once they had been notified but he was working with the social networking site to act even faster.

“What we’ve got to do is set up a better system with Facebook so that if they get a notice from us that this site is improper than all they have to do is not make a judgment about it but press the delete button,” he told the British Broadcasting Corp. in an interview Thursday.

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