Phil Neville, Wife Julie And Disabled Daughter Targeted By Online Trolls

The most relevant extract from this article:

But while being bombarded with vicious tweets was bad enough for the couple, they were left devastated when the trolls started targeting daughter Isabella, who has cerebral palsy.

The pair were told by doctors the ­youngster would never walk, but she defied the odds and now gets around with splints.

Julie said: “We had someone tweet saying they were selling T-shirts captioned, ‘Phil Neville’s daughter is a spastic, a cyclops and has eight toes,’ asking us if we wanted to buy them.

“Death threats and rape threats are bad enough, but when people start abusing our daughter, that is ­something else.

“I was sat in bed watching TV when the tweets came through. I felt ­physically sick to the pit of my stomach and it kept me awake all night. I simply replied, ‘Shame on you’.

“But Philip retweeted it and they ended up receiving threats from other fans.

“It is beyond belief. The only mercy is that Isabella isn’t old enough to read Twitter. Ignorance and abuse like that could damage someone for life.

“Isabella is a bright, brave, beautiful little girl and we tell her that she can do anything that she wants to do. What right have these people to abuse her just because her dad is in the public eye?

“If she was to read the messages how would she feel? Luckily she is a strong person. I saw an actor from Breaking Bad talking on TV about his disability.

“He spoke so eloquently about how these bullies and outsiders don’t realise his disability is his greatest strength.

“People like Isabella overcome such adversity on a daily basis that mean words are the least of their worries. But to a child like Isabella, and us as her parents they still hurt.”

Online abuse is sadly a big problem for many disabled people. I am pleased, once again, to see two sensitive high profile people using their fame to speak out about such an important issue.