The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary has charged a 38-year-old St. John's man for mimicking the e-mail address of Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams.

The province shut down its e-mail system for several hours last week when it discovered that someone had been sending e-mails from what appeared to be the premier's account.

The province shut down its e-mail system for several hours last week when it discovered that someone had been sending e-mails from what appeared to be Premier Danny Williams's account.
The province shut down its e-mail system for several hours last week when it discovered that someone had been sending e-mails from what appeared to be Premier Danny Williams's account.
(CBC)
However, a short time after pulling the plug on the government's e-mail system, the messages were discovered to be a ruse. Officials said the person who sent the messages was unable to read the premier's e-mails or access sensitive information.

Police said Wednesday that a man was formally charged last week with one count of mischief in relation to the incident.

While police have not named the individual, Paul Perrier said this week that he is the man responsible.

"Last week I was the man, basically, who made the front page of the Evening [sic] Telegram," said Perrier.

Man plans to plead not guilty

Perrier claimed he sent an e-mail containing nasty and wild accusations about Premier Danny Williams last week and he said he made it look like it came from the premier's account. He added it was a ploy to draw attention to children's issues.

"I want to rattle this guy's chain, that's why I sent out this spoof e-mail," said Perrier.

"I never cracked into no system or anything like that. It was just a little basic program I used to make it look like it came from the premier's e-mail."

The provincial government said about 80 employees and an unknown number of outside accounts actually received the message.

Perrier, however, claimed the actual number is a lot higher. He said he went to random websites and picked thousands of addresses.

"Well, I had a list of about 44- or 45,000 e-mails, I suppose," said Perrier.

"I got about 50- to 55,000 out of it, I suppose."

While Perrier claimed he sent the e-mails, he said he is going to plead not guilty to mischief at his court appearance in September.

The police said an investigation is still underway by the RNC's economic crime unit and the RCMP's integrated technical crime unit.

A spokesperson for the RNC said police are not ruling out further charges.