Stan Collymore Twitter troll: Care worker given restraining order over hundreds of abusive tweets

The Cannock-born ex-footballer identified troll Taidgh Hughes after being sent 850 tweets, a court heard.

Hughes bombarded the 45-year-old ex-Stafford Rangers player with messages over a month-long period.

He sent the the former Aston Villa player images of Adolf Hitler, Jimmy Savile and Michael Jackson with the player's face superimposed onto them.

The abuse culminated in the controversial radio pundit receiving an obscene racist message about his mother.

At one point Collymore received 250 messages in a single day from the 25-year-old.

Collymore managed to track down the anonymous troll and pass his details to police.

Appearing at Bournemouth Magistrates' Court, Hughes was issued the restraining order and given a community service order.

Afterwards Collymore took to Twitter to mock the troll, of Lights Close in Christchurch.

A court heard Hughes hid behind the @Stanblockedclub Twitter handle after his own account was blocked by Collymore.

He sent the forward images of Hitler and Savile with the player's face superimposed onto them.

Collymore recognised a Tesco mobile emblem in the photos from previous tweets and trawled through Hughes personal Facebook and Instagram accounts.

He found Hughes had posted the same doctored images as well as uploading screengrabs of their clashes.

After he passed on the troll's details to Dorset Police, Collymore messaged him over Twitter posting: "Hey @tiggyhughes, how are you today? Knock knock? Who's there? Dorset! Dorset who? Dorset CID."

And: "Police have you bang to rights. You're in deep deep trouble."

After Hughes was arrested he gave two no comment interviews to police but pleaded guilty to persistently making use of a public communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety to Stanley Collymore under the Communications Act 2003.

In 1998 Collymore infamously struck his then partner Ulrika Jonsson which led to a barrage of criticism.

Jason Spellman, prosecuting at the court, said Hughes tweeted Collymore twice on April 21 last year, asking him to retweet an article about domestic violence awareness.

Collymore felt the contact was 'sarcastic' and 'blocked' the defendant's account.

Mark Price, mitigating, said the defendant started the abuse after the former footballer invited his 765,000 Twitter followers to send Hughes abuse after he took issue with Collymore for calling Ms Jonsson an "obsolete old banger".

Mr Price said: "Mr Hughes sent the victim a (tweet) and he didn't like it.

It was after this that Hughes sent the domestic violence tweets.

Mr Price said: "This is how it all began."

He added that Hughes regretted sending the message about Mr Collymore's mother.

As well as being sentenced to the restraining order, Hughes was also ordered to pay court costs of £145.

It is not the first time Collymore has been sent abuse on Two years ago he suffered a backlash on social media when he suggested Liverpool striker Luis Suarez cheated had dived.

Collymore named and shamed the trolls by retweeting some of the abuse he has received.

He also hit out at Twitter, saying the people behind it aren't doing enough.

Staffordshire Police investigated the offensive messages, with Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis describing the abuse as 'abhorrent'.