First youth police and crime commissioner faces no further action on tweets

Miss Brown, 17, was to provide young people’s views on policing but found her tweets being investigated amid claims they were homophobic, racist and violent.

A spokeswoman for Kent Police said: “We have spoken to the CPS about our findings, and given them our view that this case does not pass the evidential threshold for prosecution; we will make no recommendations to them for charges and will take no further police action having discharged our duty to investigate.

“Whilst some of the language used is offensive, particularly the comments which derogatorily refer to particular social groups, we do not believe that in the context they are grossly offensive on a reasonable objective assessment considering intent.”

Miss Brown, from Sheerness in Kent, has apologised for causing offence with the messages she posted on the social media site between the ages of 14 and 16.

She has denied being anti-gay or racist, and said she is against taking drugs, insisting a reference on Twitter to making “hash brownies” was from a Scooby Doo film. The offensive tweets have been deleted. The teenager’s Twitter account was not checked as part of the recruitment process.

Confirmation of no further action follows a complaint from her lawyers who wrote to Kent Police Chief Constable Ian Learmonth about the “wholly diproportionate” scope and nature of the investigation and seizure of her mobile phone.

They said Paris was visited by a Special Branch officer at her home on April 11, along with a second officer, and asked to surrender her mobile for examination. Then she was requested to attend an interview under caution on April 14, during which she was quizzed for over an hour. Her phone was returned three days later.

Yesterday, Dan Tench, from legal firm Olswang, released a statement saying: “Paris and her family are pleased this matter has been brought to a close. She has had a difficult time recently, in part due to the media and inappropriate police scrutiny. She is glad to put this behind her and move on.”

Another youth commissioner will be appointed later this year, Kent police and crime commissioner Ann Barnes said.