Lisa Bruce (25) says her self confidence has plummeted and she now suffers from anxiety and panic attacks following the abuse, carried out over a number of months last year.
She has been called names by strangers who have seen the lies posted online about her, and even had people telling her that she deserved to ‘die slowly and alone’.
Last month the perpetrator of the abuse, her ex-boyfriend, was sentenced to 90 hours’ community service, a nine-month probation order and given a five-year restraining order after admitting harassment. He was also ordered to pay his victim £1,000 in compensation.
The abuse included vile messages via social media sent from fake profiles, letters to her parents’ home and her father’s work, messages to her friends via an online dating site and letters to her boss, all seeking to discredit her and containing malicious accusations – which she says are completely untrue – about her conduct.
Speaking exclusively to the JEP, Ms Bruce said that as someone who had always prided herself on her reputation, she now wanted to set the record straight.
‘I was feeling so ashamed and so worthless that, in my darkest moments, I questioned whether people’s lives would be easier if I was no longer here,’ she said.
‘He has left me emotionally damaged and physically changed. He is fully aware that I have suffered from stress-related alopecia in the past and I find this the cruellest part of his campaign to intimidate and torment me.’
She added: ‘It was clear that due to the personal content of the messages that it was coming from someone I knew. This caused me to distrust everyone, even my closest friends.
‘Due to the personal content of the messages and the letters my father received, it was clear that the individual knew where I was and who I was with. As a result, I have suffered from frequent panic and anxiety attacks and my self-confidence has plummeted.
‘Not only that, people who have read the profile created on Tinder about me and who have chosen to believe the content have messaged me directly. Over Christmas, when I was coming out of a restaurant toilet alone, a total stranger called me “the w***e on Tinder”. I have received comments from people I had never met telling me that I deserve to “die slowly and alone” and that I “don’t deserve to be happy”.’
Ms Bruce now believes she waited too long to report the abuse to the police and wants anyone else experiencing online bullying and harassment to seek help.
‘Abuse, in any form, should not be tolerated and it is not a sign of weakness to ask for help,’ she said. ‘I would not have been able to cope with what was going on without the support of my family and friends and I wish I would have spoken out sooner – perhaps things wouldn’t have gone as far as they did.
‘Absolutely nothing is worth sacrificing your own mental health for, and no one should have the right to make anyone else feel worthless.’
She added: ‘I left it far too long to speak to the police, all because I was too embarrassed to admit that, 24 years old, I was being bullied and harassed and it was causing a decline in my own mental health. I urge anyone who is going through any form of harassment or intimidation to go to the police. You will be taken seriously and, by reporting it to them as soon as it starts, the situation may be nipped in the bud much earlier than in my experience.’
