Mary Beard Shames Troll Oliver Rawlings By Retweeting His Vile Message

Mary Beard Shames Twitter Troll

An internet troll has been publicly shamed after using Twitter to insult TV classicist Mary Beard.

Beard, professor of classics at University of Cambridge, named and shamed Oliver Rawlings by retweeting his vile message.

In his tweet Rawlings, who has 243 followers on the social networking site, called Beard a "filthy old slut" and made a sexual comment.

He also addressed Jeremy Vine, asking the BBC Radio 2 presenter if he should be arrested over the remark.

Fellow users responded by condemning Rawlings and within minutes he responded: "I sincerely apologise for my trolling. I was wrong and very rude. Hope this can be forgotten and forgiven."

He later added: "I feel this had been a good lesson for me. Thanks 4 showing me the error of my ways."

It might have something to do with fear of his mother finding out.

Beard offered to delete her retweet if the original message was deleted.

The don said exposing 'trolls' was the best tactic.

Talking to a fellow user about her decision to highlight the abuse, she tweeted: "It is a tough call. I have increasingly opted for name and shame.

"It has to be outed. And maybe his friends can say 'stop'."

Earlier this year she spoke of her experience of online abuse after an appearance on the BBC's Question Time programme.

She told the Daily Mail: "Women are too often told just to shut up and don't make a fuss and it'll go away.

"But not this time. What about all those other women who might think twice about appearing on Question Time after this?

"There's no huge advantage in being 58, but if you've lived a little and you've got a thick skin, you're able to say: 'No, I'm not having this. I'm going to do something about it.'"

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