Louise Mensch flies from New York to UK to confront Twitter troll
The troll had previously sent her a series of pornographic images
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Your support makes all the difference.Louise Mensch has come face-to-face with a misogynistic troll who hounded her for several months by sending her graphic pornographic images.
Appearing in the BBC documentary Troll Hunters on Wednesday evening, Mensch flew to the UK from her home in New York specifically to confront the troll.
Described in the programme as having received “more than her fair share of abuse” online, Mensch said confronting the troll would give her “closure” as she would get “a sense of his real life”.
“Would you like to explain why you’ve been sending me pornographic images for a number of years?” Mensch asked the man, who had his face blurred on camera, while he arrived at his home.
The troll admitted: “It was to wind you up and upset you did it work?” before saying he didn’t have much interaction with women which led to Mensch affirming: “You don’t like women, why don’t you like women?”
Mensch is a controversial presence on Twitter and although not on the same level of the aggressive, misogynistic threats she highlighted in Troll Hunters, Mensch herself has been accused of “trolling” people.
One person who hinted at the irony of Mensch confronting a troll was Abby Tomlinson, the leader of the Milifandom movement, who found herself on the receiving end of Mensch in 2015.
The former Tory MP was accused of “trolling and bullying” 17-year-old Tomlinson after sending her a barrage of tweets when the surprising Ed Miliband-focused fandom garnered popularity and publicity ahead of the General Election last year.
However Tomlinson, who is now 18, praised Mensch for standing up to the particularly nasty strain of trolling she was subject to on Wednesday’s programme.
Mensch is known for challenging trolls who abuse women in the public eye.
In 2012, troll Frank Zimmerman received a suspended prison sentence after Mensch reported online threats made to her in regards to her children.
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