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Criado-Perez rape threats: Manchester man faces no further action by police after activist receives Twitter abuse

By Danielle Wainwright

A Manchester man suspected of threatening to rape and murder a female activist on Twitter has been told that he will face no further action by police.

The abuse on campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez began when she slammed the decision by The Bank of England to drop Elizabeth Fry as the face of the £5 note in favour of Winston Churchill.

She then received a barrage of abuse including threats of murder and rape which lasted for days in which she told The Guardian that she lost two-and-a-half stone from the stress.

“I cried a lot. I screamed a lot. I don’t know if I had a kind of breakdown. I was unable to function, unable to have normal interactions,” she said.

The 21-year-old man was arrested on Sunday July 28 in connection with an allegation of malicious communication.

A 14-year-old-boy was also interviewed under caution on August 20 and was told he too would face no further action.

However Isabella Sorley, 23, from Newcastle and John Nimmo, 25, from South Shields, will be charged with improper use of a communications network in relation to tweets to campaigner the Crown Prosecution Service said.

They will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on January 7, a decision which Ms Criado-Perez was annoyed she wasn’t informed about first.

She tweeted: “Well that’s pretty awesome. CPS informing press about charges ahead of me. About the level of victim-support I’ve grown to expect.”

Image courtesy of BBC via YouTube, with thanks.

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