Ian Austin seeks legal action against Twitter trolls
Conservative politican has been dogged by months' long smear campaign
Ian Austin with his girlfriend
Former Labour MP and current Conservative Party activist Ian Austin has announced he has begun defamation proceedings against several trolls on Twitter who he claims have led a relentless campaign accusing him of engaging in bestiality, specifically that he regularly has sexual intercourse with dogs, something he strenuously denies.
Screenshots seen by this paper that are too upsetting to print show how ever more graphic and disturbing accusations against the ex-politician have become common currency on the mircoblogging site, with a coterie of so-called left sh*tposters leading the abuse.
A selection of the abusive tweets that were too shocking for us to publish
“I’ve kept my silence on this for too long but enough is enough. I’ve even tried reaching out with polite DMs to explain to these hard left, ultra-Corbynista, bedroom-dwelling troglodytes how hurtful what they’re doing is but often they either ignore my pleas or just reply with ‘dog nonce’ or ‘Michael Gove’. I’m just thankful the spelling of my name has spared me the indignity of a spoonerisation, that really would be too much.”
Mr Austin attempted to reach out to the trolls and politely ask them to stop
We reached out to Austin’s lawyer who is pursuing the case, Mingley Peefaffe of Slaughter and Mayme. Over a long and rambling phone conversation he tried out some new comedy material and, bizarrely, asked how to set up Fortnite… twice. Eventually, after much back and forth he was able to produce a somewhat coherent statement, “I am familiar with many of these basement-dwelling, cum-into a-sock-you-kiss-at-night-and-call-it-Julia trolls and let me tell you something: they can only hide behind anonymity for so long but I will thumb this case open as one would do with a milk cartoon…or an anus.”