The offence under the Communications Act 2003 s.127(1)(a) required proof that a person, who had sent a message by means of a public electronic communications service, intended his words to be offensive to those to whom they related or be aware that they might be taken to be so, but a culpable state of mind would ordinarily be found where a message was couched in terms liable to cause gross offence to those to whom it related. It made no difference to criminal liability whether a message was ever actually received or whether the persons who received it were offended by it. What mattered was whether reasonable persons would find the message grossly offensive, judged by the standards of an open and just multiracial society.

[2006] UKHL 40