Arrest Story Still Making the Rounds

The UK's Daily Mail has published an article in its online edition here that sounds pretty disturbing to readers. The article tells about police in Sunderland, England arresting a deaf man for what they thought were obscene gestures aimed at them, thought the man says he was only trying to tell them he was deaf. The problem is that this happened nine years ago. A fact not mentioned in the article. In 2002, Shaun Phuprate was charged with being drunk and disorderly, along with his brother who tried to intervene. Local magistrates later threw the case out. The Daily Mail itself ran the article in 2002 which you can see here.