I woke up earlier to the sound of a text being recieved on my phone. It was Claire. The night before, she had asked and even demanded that anything I may have written about her in this diary be deleted. Not only that, but she demanded that she be allowed to check for herself. I ignored the message and went back to sleep.

When I did get up and go about my business online, I found that she had left me a guestbook message. I was quite surprised by this, as I've never given her the address of my guestbook, let alone my diary. Maybe I linked her to a picture or something and she got to the guestbook via that. I can't remember. I've deleted the message from her since.

She demanded again that I take everything out of my diary regarding her and not only that, but she be given the password to my diary because she didn't "want bad stuff to happen". Bad stuff? She had also said this phrase in her texts and now I felt as if I was being threatened by her. That's not really a good way to get anything from anyone. The message has since been deleted.

I logged onto Faceparty about an hour ago and I had a new message. It was from Claire.

"Please Neil take the stuff off keep it off. I dont want bad stuff to happen, I have asked and asked you PLEASE!"

I began writing a reply to her via the Faceparty, but then decided it would be better to do it via email.

As I was writing the email however, I recieved one off her.

"Neil,

I am very upset that you have not responded to my texts and emails. I have sort legal advice and if you dont take the things you have written about me down within 7 days of this email I will be taking all the evidence to my solicitor. I will also contact the web site in regards to this issue.

Claire

Legal advice? Solicitors? I'm sorry, but did I commit a crime somewhere?

My reply:

"Hello.

I didn't want to have to send you an email regarding this, but since you keep persisting and being paranoid about whatever you may think is in my diary, I'll help you put your mind to ease in the hopes that you'll stop contacting me.

Firstly, I'd like to point out that since around January 5th of this year, my diary has been passworded so your fears of anything supposedly terrible that I've been saying about you are irrational. The password is known by less than eight people, all of which I trust, as I consider them to be friends.

Secondly, earlier today, I went through my diary and deleted parts of some entries for your benefit. For me, this was quite hard to do, as my diary is the most important thing in my life. I realise that you don't keep one, but please try to understand that this diary has a hell of a lot of my thoughts and emotions in and deleting them is incredibly hard for me to do. However, as I said, to calm your fears, I did so.

While I'm sure it probably doesn't actually mean anything to you, you have my word that I've done the above. I'm giving you my word, as of course, since it's password protected, you will not be able to check for yourself. Besides, even if you could check, what would you look for when it's been deleted? Again, I am giving you my word that I spent 30 minutes earlier going through some diary entries and deleting anything which I thought may be what you are worried about. Speaking of which, what ARE you worried about? What do you actually think is written? I assure you, nothing terribly bad has been said, only that you've hurt me and apparantly continue to do so.

I began writing this email about two minutes before your quite overexaggerated email to me. You've sought legal advice eh? What charges can you possibly bring against me when I've done nothing wrong in the eyes of the law? Yes, I've written about you, but writing about someone is not a crime.

In addition, you claim you will be "taking all the evidence to my solicitor". What evidence exactly? And as for contacting the website, I think you'll find I've breached no terms and conditions and therefore my diary and all of its contents is completely within the bounds of both the website's rules and it's certainly within the bounds of the law.

While I may not want to be your friend, I certainly don't want to be your enemy either, which is why, after debating it with myself, I did as you asked and I'm hoping that you will now please leave me alone, as I have left you alone.

Thanks,
Neil"

And her reply to it:

"INVASION OF PRIVACY AND LIBEL! There was alot of lies in there...and 8 people too much.
I have copyed the things on the site. plus i'd like the user name and password to make sure those things never go back on as I dont trust you anymore. i'm not going to give it to anyone as part of a compromise on my part."

And my reply:

"Hello again.

As I write this, I find myself laughing on the inside just out of sheer disbelief at what you're asking of me and what you're accusing me of. So, please let me address your concerns.

You accuse me of invading your privacy and that I am libel. It's not invasion of privacy when I'm writing about my own experiences in my own diary on my own computer. It's not libel, because everything written is justified and was not written out of contempt or ridicule. However, to accuse someone of something they have not done is libel because your accusations are based on nothing and therefore unjust. Please keep this mind.

You say there are a lot of lies in my diary. I don't recall ever allowing you to read it, nor did I ever give you the password for it, which is why you're asking for it now. So, if you wish for me to first believe that you have even read anything in my diary, please prove it before making accusations that I've apparantly written something libellious. Please present your libellious information if you claim to have it. In addition, since my diary is passworded and I did not give you it, if you claim to have read it, then you have done so illegally, under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and this is a criminal offence. Furthermore, copying any text from my diary is also against the law as you have obtained it illegally.

I'm afraid I cannot give you the username and password. If you've apparantly been reading it anyway, then I fail to see why you'd need me to give it to you anyway.

Whether you trust me or not, the fact remains that in the spirit of sorting this out amicably, I did as you asked. Please appreciate the fact that I'm actively trying to address your concerns, rather than simply saying "I've done it" and that's it. I'm making every effort I can to explain to you that I've done as you've asked. A username and password to my diary will not be supplied to you.

To clarify:

I have not broken the law for reasons already stated.
Any lies you claim that I have told are unfounded and therefore you can be held libel.
Any information you may have retrieved from my diary was obtained through an illegal manner and is an offence.
I have removed material as a good-will gesture and was not required to do so by any law.
In addition, I request that you first back up your allegations before threatening me. Plus, you have not actually been very specific at all about what it is that you would have liked me to delete. This is usually the first step. Please provide direct URL's to the specific diary entry you are concerned about and a sample of the offending text that you claim to already have. I will be more than happy to look into your concerns further after you've done this.

Thanks,
Neil

And I await her response to this very strange situation. Am I about to be taken to court over an apparantly breaking of the law that I don't recall doing? I'm quite shocked and I have to admit that yes, I suppose I am a little scared too.

Advice, anyone?