Police have spoken to Sorcha Eastwood MP over Stormont rape threat against her - promising to 'thoroughly investigate'

The incident, which the Lagan Valley MP said happened when she was an MLA in the Northern Ireland Assembly, was raised in the House of Commons during a debate on violence against women and girls on Thursday.

The PSNI has now been in contact with Ms Eastwood to discuss what it described as “unacceptable comments made to her in 2022”.

Superintendent Kelly Moore added: “It is totally unacceptable when those involved in public life, and particularly our elected representatives, become the subject of threats, harassment or any other form of criminality. We will thoroughly investigate any such incident.”

“We know that female elected representatives in particular can suffer a disproportionate level of unacceptable and criminal behaviour including online abuse and harassment. The Police Service is committed to supporting all our elected representatives and doing everything we can to ensure they do their jobs free from harassment or intimidation.”

Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie had previously described the incident as “appalling” and urged the Police Service of Northern Ireland to investigate.

His party colleague, deputy leader Robbie Butler, who represents the same constituency as Ms Eastwood, said it was “despicably degrading and horribly wrong anywhere that a woman would be subject to such threats”.

Speaking about the incident, Sorcha Eastwood told MPs ​“We would see a lot of school groups coming through the constituency. We previously did a lot of visits to the Parliament Building in Stormont whenever I sat there in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

“During one school visit, a member of the public came up and said that they wanted to rape me.

“There were two people there, and we were just kind of paralysed in response.

“That was not the right response – not from me, but from the people around – but it is so normalised that that was exactly what people thought”.