Piers Morgan has vowed to track down a Twitter troll who has been “harassing” his GMB co-host Susanna Reid “for years in a vicious, vile manner”.
The former newspaper editor has warned the cruel social media user he won’t stop until he discovers his (or her) true identity.
In the first series of tweets about the issue today, Piers wrote a message to the troll: “I’ve been tracking you for a while. Constantly setting up new fake accounts & mainly targeting & abusing Susanna in a very unpleasant way. I will find out who you are very soon & then we’ll find out how ‘tough’ you really are. Enjoy your day. cc @TwitterUK”
He called on his 6.42M followers to help him find out who the troll is.
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Piers believes the person behind the account has set-up a number of them which they hide behind to write cruel messages and harrass single mum of three, Susanna, 47.
Their slurs against the presenter have recently included calling her “as predictable as she is ruthless and fake” and saying: “You can always tell when @BBCBreakfast is smashing @GMB in the ratings because Susanna’s cleavage comes out to play. #LowRentITV #Nearly50 #PutThemAwayLove.”
Piers, 53, said the abuse has also gone much further than this, as Susanna’s home address, where she lives with her sons aged 12, 13 and 15, has also been publicly shared.
The outraged presenter said it’s also Twitter’s responsibility to do something.
“It can be very intimidating for women, especially when they are single mums & the abuse includes personal information. Twitter’s got to stop this stuff,” he wrote.
He added: “One of Twitter’s main problems is anonymous trolls using multiple fake accounts to target/harass female personalities. This person is one such individual. What do you intend to do about it @TwitterUK?”
He later said that the “net is closing” on Susanna’s abuser and he intended “to find him/her and get it stopped”.
Susanna also took to Twitter today to share how she feels about the abuse.
She wrote: “Remember: people say things on the internet they wouldn’t have the courage to say to your face. I have NEVER had anyone say – directly – anything as unkind as some of the stuff I get tweeted. And NOTHING in my professional life stops me from saying this.”
Piers’ tweets eventually led to the troll coming out of the woodwork to respond, writing: “Hi Piers, if you stop the spinning, OTT self-promotion & narcissism then I will gladly stop the waspish criticism. I also apologise most profusely if I hurt your feelings when I tweeted your C&P 2.8m rating for last night & compared it to Trevor McDonalds 3.7m rating P.S. #manup”
By C & P, he was referring to Piers’ documentary for the Crime & Punishment season, Serial Killer With Piers Morgan.
To this Piers hit back: “I don’t care what you say about me. But I do care about what you’ve been doing to my friend, harassing her for years in a vicious, vile manner with multiple fake accounts & revealing personal info. We have it all, and you will soon be exposed.”
When the troll then asked his 87 followers, “Piers is tracking me, what should I do?”, the presenter told them to “get yourself a lawyer”.
Read more: Viewers heap praise on Piers Morgan for ‘uncharacteristic’ approach in Serial Killer interview
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