Scots singer Michelle McManus reveals vile online abuse after guitar case assault

The night she was hit in the face by a man wielding a guitar case, Michelle McManus didn’t think she could have felt any worse.

Yet she would soon learn that as a high-profile victim of violence , the physical impact of assault was only one part of the trauma she’d be forced to endure.

Today, Michelle reveals how online trolls mocked her assault and left her feeling “sick to the stomach” after the distress of the attack and reliving the ordeal in court .

One cruel troll even mocked up an image of himself as the guitar-wielding attacker.

Now the singer and presenter is speaking out in the hope other women won’t have to experience the same vitriol she did after the case went to court and her attacker was convicted.

The 38-year-old was assaulted in 2017 on a Glasgow street outside a southside pub by Derek McArthur.

McArthur was found guilty of striking Michelle on the face with the guitar case and fined £350 early last month.

Yet following reports of the assault and conviction, the former host of STV show The Hour found herself the target of a volley of social media hate.

Michelle now says sites such as Facebook and Twitter don’t do enough to prevent online abuse aimed at women who speak up against violence.

The Pop Idol winner said: “The physical side of the assault left me in agony but after reading what some people wrote after the first reports, I didn’t know how I was going to get through until the next day.

“I’ve been used to people telling me I’m fat, telling me I’m ugly. I could almost laugh that off.

“But when I read what I read online, I was sick to my stomach.

“It wasn’t necessarily the thought that people hated me, it was the fact that people were saying things like I deserved it, condoning the violence, saying that I was mental, that I was on my period, or hadn’t eaten enough.”

Michelle believes social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook shouldn’t profit without being responsible for the vitriol of the trolls.
She said: “Social media is absolutely complicit here. These sites can’t take all the money they make off the back of their users without acting with responsibility.

“They must find a way to police this better. The law has to be changed in terms of what is acceptable online and what isn’t.”

Women’s Aid and Glasgow South MP Stewart McDonald have backed Michelle’s calls for tougher rules governing posts which condone violence against women.

After reports of McArthur’s assault on Michelle outside Linen bar in Shawlands appeared online, she was horrified to read the abusive posts. And when McArthur was convicted, and sentenced, the reports triggered more online attacks from both men and women.

Some even suggested they start a crowdfunding site to help McArthur pay his fine.

One woman asked if she could “buy McArthur a drink and a heavier guitar case”. Another woman posted she was, “so glad this happened, hahahah, I f*****g hate her.”

A man referred to news of the assault as “the funniest thing I have ever seen”.

Michelle said: “One guy sent me a message telling me I must have deserved it, then actually tried to phone me through Facebook. That was terrifying.”

Another man posted: “£350, prob walked out of court shouting ‘worth it mate’.”

Another man tweeted at the singer that “he didn’t hit you hard enough with it”.

And yet another posted a bizarre mock-up of the attack, with an image of himself brandishing the guitar.

Michelle said: “What man in their right mind would share an image showing themselves attacking a woman? It’s insane.

“These men must have a mother, a sister, a niece, a girlfriend. They can’t think this is OK. They know deep down it’s not.”

Abusive comments from other women were also deeply shocking.

She said: “Women were applauding this man for hitting another woman in the street. It was unbelievable. It made me feel so desperately sad.

“They normalised it, that it’s OK for a man to hit a woman. To read those things, my head was all over the place. It was a very dark period for me. These comments felt like being assaulted again. It was vile and it’s not acceptable.

“It’s inciting violence and hatred but it’s also damaging to people’s mental health.

MP McDonald said: “Social media platforms are showing themselves to be on track to becoming a moral sewer. Where it is possible to fundraise the fine for a man who violently attacked an innocent woman on your platform, then you have a problem.

“I’ve met with the social media platforms and pressed them to take action. I’m now at a stage where Iwill be working with Tom Watson
MP (Labour deputy leader) to putforward proposals for a social media regulator.”

Michelle feels the online response to the people who attacked Aston Villa footballer Jack Grealish and hit Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with an egg illustrates double standards. They got 14 weeks and 28 days’ jail respectively.

She said: “First, the gulf between the punishments is jaw-dropping – the man who attacked me was found guilty and given a £350 fine. Yet the men who attacked other men received custodial sentences.

“What it says to me is that the only difference is I was a woman.”

While relieved at McArthur’s conviction, Michelle was forced to relive the ordeal, which she said was on her mind every day.

She said: “This man made up lies about me and my husband Jeff. I had to testify under cross-examination for hours and his lawyer threw all sorts of rubbish at me. That part of the ordeal alone is why so many women don’t come forward and press charges.”

Susan Jack, of Glasgow Women’s Aid, said: “It’s very distressing to see the abuse Michelle received online but, sadly, it’s not unusual.

“Social media is a new platform for perpetrating violence against women.”

Michelle added: “I’m a strong person. If I hadn’t been, I don’t know what I would have done because this was horrendous.

“I’m all for free speech. But when people are using social media to applaud, condone or incite violence, then it’s clear something has gone terribly wrong.”

Twitter said: “We don’t comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons. Our abusive behaviour policy prohibits any attempt to silence, harass or intimidate another user’s voice. We take robust enforcement action when behaviour violates our policies.”