British tsunami e-mail hoaxer jailed

1/24/2005 12:00:00 PM GMT

A British man was sentenced to six months in jail for sending hoax emails to friends and relatives of people missing in last December's tsunami. In the emails Christopher Pierson claimed the missing were dead.

Pierson pleaded guilty to the charges of causing public nuisance and "malicious" communication for 35 emails claiming to be from the British Foreign Office.

According to the prosecutors, Pierson had sent the purported Foreign Office email messages to concerned relatives stating that the "government regretted to inform the victim that the missing person they were inquiring about was confirmed dead."

Pierson had obtained the contact details from the website of a British television news service.

The police were alerted to the hoax emails after relatives' enquiries, they were later able to track down Pierson through his internet provider.

Pierson blames a personal tragedy for what happened. In a statement he said, "I apologize to everyone I have hurt. If I could contact them all, I would. It is a combination of some terrible things that have happened to me in the past 10 years. I lost my son in 1991. This is another tragedy. My eldest son for whom I am full-time carer nearly died on December 21... He was aged 12. My uncle died on December 20."

"I know this was a moment of madness, but I believe it was a cry for help," he added.

The court heard that Pierson, who went bankruptin 1998, was depressed over the death of his son and that his other son had been diagnosed with unstable diabetes which required 24-hour care.

The picture of a father grieving on television had prompted him to send the e-mails, as he wanted the family to have closure over the death of their loved one.

The death toll from the tsunami now stands at more than 234,000.