Index: BrokenLinkCheckTask.java
===================================================================
--- BrokenLinkCheckTask.java	(revision 8938)
+++ BrokenLinkCheckTask.java	(working copy)
@@ -263,6 +263,12 @@
         generalHttpClient.setConnectionTimeout(30000);
         HeadMethod head = null;
         try {
+        	
+			if (normalizeExternalUri(link).equals("http://")) {
+				Element el = new Element("text", "i18n", I18N_NS_URI);
+				el.addContent(HTTP_ERROR_PREFIX + new Integer(400).toString());
+				return el;
+			} 
             head = new HeadMethod(normalizeExternalUri(link));
             head.setFollowRedirects(true);
             try {