An Australian student accused of triggering a bomb hoax on a flight to Dublin by sending a text to a friend today told a jury that she never thought the message would be taken seriously.
Angela Sceats (19), of Sydney, Australia, said the message sent to her Australian flatmate Angela Forster was one of a series of joke texts they had exchanged.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard Ms Sceats was on her way to Stansted Airport for a flight to Dublin when she sent the text in November.
Ms Sceats told the jury that she was travelling on a train from London to Stansted with the intention of meeting a friend called Michael Edwards and flying with him to Dublin. She said she was running late for her flight because she had gone to the wrong London station to catch the train to Stansted.
While on the train, she had been texting Mr Edwards and Ms Forster, who was at the flat they were sharing in Islington.
Ms Sceats told the jury that she had texted Miss Forster, saying she was late, and they had exchanged messages about "praying" that she would make the flight. Ms Sceats then sent a message saying: "Can you ring the police and tell them there is a bomb on the 8.10 flight."
Ms Sceats said she did not realise that Ms Forster had responded to the message by calling police. "I was sitting on this train for so long and I was so bored and I was just wasting time. I was just sending stupid joke messages to her," Ms Sceats told the court.
"This text was sent to her as a joke in order to make her laugh. I never thought she would take it seriously. It was an extremely bad joke made in bad taste but it was never supposed to go further than us two."
Jurors have been told that police stopped three flights to Dublin from Stansted and were considering shutting down the airport. They arrested Ms Sceats at Stansted, who told them the text had been a joke that was misunderstood.
She denies communicating false information with intent - a charge brought under the 1977 Criminal Law Act.