One Direction star Zayn Malik's mum has joined Twitter to protect her son from internet trolls.
Tricia Malik signed up after yobs targeted the singer for his Muslim religion and Asian background.
She hit back at one user who posted abuse: "Hope you're happy now Zayn noticed your tweet! You can't even imagine how it made him upset, you psycho."
Tricia, 41, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, later told almost 70,000 followers that she had urged Zayn, 20, to ignore the critics.
She added: "My son is strong enough."
The star's mother later revealed that Zayn had abandoned his own Twitter account in recent days because of the abuse being hurled at him.
She told a fan: "It wasnt even zayn who tweeted the 3 last tweets it was management & i cant force him to login twitter if he doesnt want X- (sic)"
In more tweets, Tricia defended her son against religious hatred, writing: "#iGetAnnoyedWhenPeople call zayn a terrorist just because he's muslim. being muslim doesnt mean you're a terrorit X- (sic)"
However, she has faced backlash from some users on the social network, claiming she is trying to piggyback on her son's fame.
In a series of tweets, she responded: "Its really disappointing to see 'directioners' or more like directionators sending hate to the boys' families... like this one saying im claiming to be a star.. excuse me but how dare you?
"Im just a mom who raised their kids very well im not playing the star on here im just trying to stay in touch with you! now i got why zayn doesnt log in twitter anymore. X- (sic)"