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Police called in after councillor targeted on Facebook

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The leader of the Scottish National Party opposition on Angus Council has been the victim of a cyber-bullying campaign, The Courier can reveal.

Helen Oswald confirmed she had contacted Tayside Police after taunts and jibes about her and her family on Facebook turned to a more sinister direct threat.

The Courier was notified of the public threats by a third party, but the Carnoustie councillor said the barrage of comments had been made on a public page.

While unwilling to reveal the exact nature of all the comments, Councillor Oswald said one of them had a racist bias against a member of her family.

Mrs Oswald suffered around two months of regular abuse from the start of January without dignifying any of the remarks with a reply.

However, matters came to a head one evening towards the end of last month when there was a particularly abusive series of posts, and she contacted Facebook to complain.

Mrs Oswald showed The Courier an email from the page administrator, who deemed the comments “the worst kind of cyber-bullying” before immediately suspending the page. The next day another Facebook page opened up and the abuse continued. This culminated in a threat that was reported to Tayside Police.

As a result, officers visited the home of a 35-year-old woman, who was given a formal warning.ReportMrs Oswald said it was important to highlight the issue of cyber-bullying. She urged anyone suffering in a similar manner to report the matter straight away.

“I have been told by the police to notify them of any further abuses of this nature, and I will do that.”

Mrs Oswald added that a relative responded to comments made on the site that she had blocked a business park in Carnoustie. He posted a link to The Courier which clearly pointed out her stance in favour of this development, and this resulted in a racist comment directed at him.

“As a councillor, I have to put myself out there. But my family does not and I will not allow this to happen again,” said Mrs Oswald. “I have agreed to speak about this to let those responsible know that.

“There were a number of people involved in this, the majority of whom I have never met, but including two or three I do know whose behaviour in all this disgusts me. I was shocked people could behave like this.”

Referring to the direct threat that was sent, Mrs Oswald added, “I still don’t know this person and I don’t know what they look like, so every time I step out of my house I am looking over my shoulder.”

A police spokesman said, “Tayside Police can confirm that they received a complaint about inappropriate content on a social networking site on February 26.

“Inquiries were carried out and a 35-year-old woman was subsequently warned in relation to her future conduct.”