18 year old edryd james has apologised to rugby referee nigel owens for sending him a homophobic tweet following england's six nations victory against france, dyfed powys police have revealed the pair met as part of an agreed community resolution during which james apologised for the offence he had caused an official statement from the dyfed powys police read: 'rugby referee nigel owens has met face to face with the 18 year old from cynwyl elfed who sent him a homophobic tweet after the recent england v france six nations match nigel owens (pictured speaking to england's fly half george ford) took charge of saturday's six nations match between england and france  welsh rugby fan edryd james has apologised to owens following a police investigation after homophobic abuse was posted from his twitter account  'as part of an agreed adult community resolution, the male apologised to mr owens for the offence he had caused at a meeting held at carmarthen police station on wednesday, march 25 'an adult community resolution is an alternative way of resolving crimes allowing victims to be involved in deciding how the offender can be dealt with by choosing from a list of out of court options 'the victim must agree to deal with the offence that way and the offender must admit the offence and agree to participate in the process' inspecter stuart bell added: 'i am satisfied that this matter has been effectively resolved by dyfed powys police with an outcome that was satisfactory for both parties the person responsible realises his mistake and i’m sure he will have learned from this experience 'dyfed powys police will not tolerate discrimination of any kind and the public need to realise that if offensive comments are made on social media, they are not above the law and we will investigate the matter as we would any other' james was in the eye of a storm of controversy after the short message appeared on his account on saturday evening the swansea university student is suspected of posting: ‘your a gay c*** awful performance against france tonight, how did england top wales?’ the comment sparked hundreds of replies in which rugby fans of all colours said it was disgraceful and voiced their support for owens but james, who lives with his family in cynwyl elfed, near carmarthen, west wales, claimed his phone had been stolen and he was not responsible the teenager, who describes himself online in welsh as a ‘welshman who enjoys life’, has posted many other comments about his love of rugby and heavy drinking sessions his mother meiner james, 58, told the daily mail she was ‘aware something has happened’ and said she was ‘trying to get to the bottom of it’ owens, once named as gay sports personality of the year, was encouraged by many other internet users to report the abuse while others said he should ignore it the veteran referee – who came out seven years ago – was generally praised for his control of england’s 55 35 victory over france james, 18, was in the eye of a storm of controversy after the short message appeared on his account on saturday evening  owens, who came out as gay seven years ago, replied to the tweet and it was later reported to the police  among those who spoke out for him were former wales fly half jonathan davies, will carling and wasps fly half andy goode owens later tweeted: ‘an absolute pleasure & privilege to ref one of the best games of rugby ever huge credit to england & france for making it a great game’ it was the first time owens had taken charge at twickenham since he received homophobic abuse from the stands during england’s 24 21 defeat to new zealand in the autumn on that occasion two people were banned from rugby hq for two years and ordered to pay £1,000 to a charity of owens’ choice rugby referee nigel owens has met face to face with the 18 year old from cynwyl elfed who sent him a homophobic tweet after the recent england v france six nations match as part of an agreed adult community resolution, the male apologised to mr owens for the offence he had caused at a meeting held at carmarthen police station on wednesday, march 25 an adult community resolution is an alternative way of resolving crimes allowing victims to be involved in deciding how the offender can be dealt with by choosing from a list of out of court options the victim must agree to deal with the offence that way and the offender must admit the offence and agree to participate in the process inspector stuart bell said: 'i am satisfied that this matter has been effectively resolved by dyfed powys police with an outcome that was satisfactory for both parties the person responsible realises his mistake and i’m sure he will have learned from this experience 'dyfed powys police will not tolerate discrimination of any kind and the public need to realise that if offensive comments are made on social media, they are not above the law and we will investigate the matter as we would any other' trolls who post racist, homophobic and threatening abuse have been dealt with extremely harshly in other high profile cases police forces are keen to show that comments made online are as damaging as those made to someone’s face in the street last year a twitter troll was jailed for 18 weeks for bombarding a labour mp with abusive messages after she supported a successful campaign to put jane austen on the £10 note peter nunn, 33, from bristol, retweeted ‘menacing' posts threatening to rape stella creasy, mp for walthamstow, and branded her a 'witch' last month twitter’s chief executive admitted that the company ‘sucks at dealing with abuse and trolls’ in a leaked memo sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article
nigel owens edryd james owens stuart bell dyfed powys police
welsh rugby fan has face to face meeting with rugby referee nigel owens . edryd james, 18, apologises for homophobic tweet sent from his account . the short message to gay referee owens called him 'a gay c***'. inspector stuart bell said: 'i am satisfied that this matter has been effectively resolved by dyfed powys police with an outcome that was satisfactory for both parties'