Death and rape threats among abuse suffered by politicians

Yahoo

27-03-2025

Death and rape threats have been issued against some Stormont politicians and their children.
Others have been physically attacked in their offices or on the street with some avoiding parts of their own constituency for fear of attack or verbal abuse.
On Wednesday, First Minister Michelle O'Neill called online abuse targeting Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Carla Lockhart "disgraceful and unacceptable".
An Electoral Commission survey on the 2024 UK general election found that many candidates continue to experience unacceptable levels of intimidation and harassment.
A group of leaders from the Centre for Democracy and Peace's Fellowship Programme have called for action to tackle the abuse.
Backed by the Electoral Commission, they have called for legislative change to strengthen protection for candidates and education initiatives to promote more respectful political discourse.
Some members of the Northern Ireland Assembly said if they had realised the scale of abuse they would face then they would never have stood for election.
BBC News NI understands some are considering leaving elected politics.
Assembly members have spoken to BBC Northern Ireland's The View detailing their experiences of harassment and abuse.
When I joined politics the abuse was really horrific.
Really nasty stuff about the way I looked, sexual slurs, picking up on every small typo that you would make in a post to say how stupid you were.
It was all about absolute humiliation.
To be honest, it really, really upset me to such an extent that I just really regretted my decision to get involved in public life.
Whenever I talk to young people about encouraging them to get into politics, it's always there in my mind that, if you step forward, you will have this.
You will have this hate.
I've received numerous sexually explicit photographs on social media.
I've actually had sexually threatening messages sent to me on social media, privately and also publicly.
That's a real concern of mine now that my daughter is at the age where she's on social media too. How do I shield her from that?
I have also received abuse and threatening, intimidating remarks when I've been out and about in public with my family as well.
I take much more consideration at what I actually bring my family along to, so as to protect them from that abuse as well.
It started as soon as I was announced as a candidate for council elections in 2014.
The hashtag "big fat Sian" was used quite a lot by people I've never met.
I've been called "a walking advert for diabetes".
But the impact of that is that I haven't put myself forward for any TV interviews with my party. I have stepped back from roles.
When I became a mother, the abuse started to hit home a little bit more. At one point, someone posted a comment under something I had written.
They said they wished they'd a gun with two bullets and take me to an island. The inference was because I was pregnant the two bullets would be used.
I remember one incident when I put up a photograph of myself and my kids out bowling, and I received just a vile, vile comment attacking both myself and the appearance of my family.
And I just thought: 'What is this about? Why are MLAs getting targeted in such a way?'
I don't really do national TV interviews, because raising your profile can often come with consequences and attacks, and the abuse that comes with that.
I know speaking to a number of colleagues across political parties that some are seriously considering whether a future in politics is for them, given the pressures and the abuse and the attacks that they suffer.
Had I known what this job would entail and the abuse that is quite normalised that comes with it, I probably wouldn't have done it and wouldn't have put my name forward.
My fear with politics in Northern Ireland is that there are no real safeguarding mechanisms for politicians.
I've had a man threaten to come to my house.
When you are in public life, people know you but you don't know everybody. I rarely socialise in my own constituency.
It should never be normalised where people are threatening to go to your door.
I've had individuals follow me when I've been out shopping with my children. I've had them abuse me when I've been on the street with my children, and I've had to explain to my children when they ask: 'Why is that person angry?'
I have been spat at, I've been verbally abused and I've been physically abused in my constituency office.
I've had a man threaten to kill me on multiple occasions at my constituency office and, on one occasion, threatening to burn the constituency office down with me in it.
Unfortunately, I've resigned myself to the fact that on occasion, I might be susceptible to these kinds of attack, which is pretty depressing.
Warning: This article contains language that some readers may find offensive
My office has been attacked twice.
We should have an open door policy, but now our door is kept locked, and that's not the way it should be for an elected representative.
On social media, I have been called a whore and ugly. They've commented on my clothes, my hair, my weight, how I conduct myself.
A woman took the time out of her Saturday evening to message me on social media, call me an orange b and tell me that I deserve to be shot.
The level of abuse that I got on social media was unreal, to the point that at one stage on a particular website, they were suggesting raping my son.
I wouldn't go to Belfast, for example, the centre of Belfast, with my wife, because every time I go, someone uses expletives to describe yourself as you're walking down the street.
Politicians can have broad shoulders. It's a completely different matter for their families, and they shouldn't have to bear that type of thing.
Abuse for me, has looked like threats - right up to physical abuse at a football match. I had to be walked to my car for safety.
It's fundamentally wrong that you have to put up with this, and for my wife and my kids to see what goes on. Although for myself, it becomes water off a duck's back.
I've had threats and abuse right up to the point of rape, to myself, where I've had to spend time going to a police station, going through the threats.
That is just completely unacceptable.
In terms of online abuse, it's regular.
It can often be under just about every post that's put up.
You're called lazy, you get all sorts of names, and basically that the work that you do is rubbish.
Especially around something as divisive as Covid. People got very, very exercised about various opinions and that, for me, included being squared up to in the street because of the decisions that we were taking.
It does make you think differently about how you go about your daily life.
Do you walk around the streets on your own? I make sure whenever I go in through the door of my house that it is locked immediately behind me.
I have received death threats, including bomb threats to my home, but certainly with the emergence of social media, the threats became quite personal in nature, about your appearance, about my working-class accent, right through to just misogynistic, hateful abuse.
Sometimes when I go in to Belfast city centre, even during the day or when I'm out for a meal in the evening, I have received verbal abuse, normally from men on the street.
So that's something as a female elected representative that we literally have to put up with although we shouldn't.
That's something that we experience quite often.
I recently had an incident at my own home where an individual was walking up alongside of my house. The individual told police he was out hunting.
I'm not aware of many people hunting at 01:30 in the morning outside an MLA's house in the countryside.
Subsequently, my security had to be stepped up.
I've had to install a camera system around the house and putting additional lighting up to make the house secure for myself and my family.
A good conversation, healthy debate, is fine but whenever you feel threatened... it's not normal, and it shouldn't be so. It's not acceptable.
You can watch the MLAs' testimonies on The View on BBC One Northern Ireland and iPlayer.
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