Sorcha Eastwood reveals she was the victim of a rape threat on social media

The Lagan Valley representative revealed the anonymous threat in a conversation on the BBC’s Red Lines podcast during a conversation about sexism faced by female politicians in Northern Ireland.

The councillor said: “The biggest shock for me was 2017 when I stood for election for the first time and I had just walked out of church with my husband and I looked at my phone because we were about to go to my mum’s house and I had a private message from somebody which was a rape threat.

“I just thought I did not sign up for this, absolutely let’s debate the substantive policy issues, let’s robustly disagree, let’s have all of that stuff, but whenever people start acting in that way...I think they feel a lot less inhibited becase they don’t have to put their name to it.”

During an interview on Good Morning Ulster she added: “It has been really difficult, because when I was asked to do the podcast you have to try and cast your mind back and whenever upsetting things happen you tend to bury it and just carry on.

“It wasn’t until I thought about it and I said - that happened to me, it was the first time I stood for election and was involved in frontline politics and I suppose it struck me because I had just come out of church with my husband, it was a beautiful Sunday, we were about to go round to my mum’s house and I just looked at my screen and there it was, it completely invaded my personal space, it violated my privacy and my right to not receive threats and it really just stuck with me.

“I feel it is important for me to speak out because it is not my fault that that happened, I didn’t derserve it and every single woman, person, man or child that experiences these things should have the confidence that the community will rally around them whenever it happens

“I felt a bit embarrassed to say that I didn’t speak out at the time but part of the reason was because it was from an anonymous account and that is the main problem now with social media and the nature of some of these things that are coming through.

“It is about time that we really took action on it. It shouldn’t just be that the onus is on the person who received the abuse.”