MP victim of headbutting suffered twice after abusive email

Days later, his constituency office received an email from an unknown man calling the Conservative MP for Leeds a “queer” and a “mummies (sic) boy”, and saying he would have had to know how to defend himself if he had been on a night out in Leeds or Bradford.

The author added he hoped the IRA would reform and bomb a Conservative party conference.

Late last month, Leeds magistrates handed 41-year-old Nicholas Scales, of Surrey, a fine and a 12-month restraining order after he pleaded guilty to sending malicious communications.

Mr Andrew says he regularly receives such emails and would not have bothered reporting it to police if it had not been sent to his constituency office.

However the MP, who lost a close friend at school who killed himself after being bullied, says he is deeply concerned at the impact of growing online abuse on youngsters and is now calling for a parliamentary debate on the issue.

Figures released this year showed one in four children have been a victim of cyber bullies.

“Since I have got elected I have grown an extra layer of skin, but I am a human being at the end of the day,” Mr Andrew told the Yorkshire Post.

“You get all sorts of messages from people being very unpleasant but I just ignore them and I am lucky I have the sort of strong character to do that.

“Not everybody does.

“This is clearly an issue and is increasing all the time, but there are a lot of victims who are suffering in silence.

“Bullying has always been a part of school life but cyber bullying means you cannot escape – it follows you home.

“There has to be a degree of accountability for the individuals concerned that send these messages – if you send things that you would not be prepared to say to a person’s face then you should not be saying it at all.

“People feel they can send these anonymously and they will not be found out.

“It is about time people realised they can be traced.

“The amount of people that have access to computers is huge so it is ultimately going to be a growing problem.

“We need to decided how we balance freedom of speech with protecting people who are being bullied in their own homes through these social networking sites.”