Gardaí question teenager in relation to racist trolling of footballer Ian Wright

The teenager presented himself to Gardaí after an online backlash

Gardaí are investigating a teenager after British footballer and ex-I’m a Celebrity contestant Ian Wright revealed he received a number of racist and threatening messages on Instagram.

Wright tweeted screenshots of the private messages he received, with slurs including ‘c*nt’, ‘n****r’, and ‘cotton picking black coin’.

Wright said in the tweet that “I know I’m not meant to look at them but these messages still hit me so hard”.

“This kid as a direct line into me & is able to send this without any worry.”

Wright’s tweet, at the time of writing, had over 19,000 retweets and over 85,000 likes.

In response to messages of support, Wright tweeted: “Thanks everyone for your kind and supportive messages. I’m normally better at ignoring it, but that one got to me. There has be consequences.”

The messages appear to come from a single user on Instagram, who frequently tagged his location as being in a county in the south of Ireland, and appeared to be involved in a local GAA club. The individual’s social media accounts are no longer available.

Gardaí later confirmed a teenager had presented himself for questioning in relation to the racist messages, after receiving a backlash on social media. In a tweet, Gardaí confirmed that “a file is now being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions” and appealed to the public “not to engage in social media commentary on this matter”.

Featured image: I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! via ITV

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