REPELLENT COWARDS
Left-wing writer and teacher at top girls’ school target Michael Gove’s family with appallingly abusive tweets
A LEFT-WING writer who threatened to inflict violence on Michael Gove in front of his children has been cautioned by police.
Former Daily Mirror and Guardian journalist Andy Dawson, who now hosts a podcast with comedian Bob Mortimer, was questioned by officers over an aggressively foulmouthed tweet he sent to Mr Gove’s wife Sarah Vine.
Written after the Cabinet Office Minister voiced his support for Dominic Cummings, it said: ‘I see your c*** of a husband is lying through his f ****** teeth all over the TV this morning.
‘I’d pay hard cash to chase the f ***** down the street and boot him in the b***s and DEFINITELY in front of your kids cos they need to know what a rank s***house their dad is.’
It is understood that a formal complaint was made last week to Northumbria Police, who cover 47year-old Mr Dawson’s home city of Sunderland.
His Athletico Mince podcast with Mr Mortimer is said to have amassed 30 million listeners with more than 200,000 tuning in to each episode.
Before turning to podcasting, he ran social media accounts for newspaper publishers Trinity Mirror – now known as Reach plc – including one for current Daily Mirror editor Alison Phillips when she launched the short-lived New Day newspaper. He has also written extensively for the Guardian.
Mr Dawson’s Twitter account had 50,000 followers, but was taken down yesterday. He is the highestprofile troll to be identified during the Dominic Cummings affair.
Ms Vine told a follower who alerted her to Mr Dawson’s tweet: ‘I really hope that if he has kids, he never gets to experience what this feels like.’
Asked whether anyone had complained about threats towards the Goves, Northumbria Police confirmed that it had received a report of alleged threatening posts on social media.
A spokesman said: ‘A 47-year-old man has been interviewed under caution in connection with a report of malicious communication. He has since received a caution by police.’
Mr Dawson’s LinkedIn page describes him as ‘writer, broadcaster, idiot’. A father of two schoolage children, his freelance career also includes running social media accounts for PG Tips, E4 and HP Sauce. His podcast with Mr Mortimer began as a football-themed show with Dawson playing to his working class roots in Sunderland, where he lives in a semi-detached house south of the Wear.
The podcast has since evolved into a commentary on Dawson’s life ‘experiences and encounters’
Elsewhere on Twitter, a teacher at a girls’ secondary school discussed the Goves’ 17-year-old daughter ‘like a piece of meat’ while targeting her parents with vile abuse.
Alom Shaha, a physics teacher at Camden School for Girls in London, said the 17-year-old should ‘actively campaign against’ her father before accusing Mr Gove and his wife of supporting fascism.
Mr Shaha said in his tweet: ‘I would love to see a f ****** 12-yearold of one of these b ****** s leave home and claim asylum saying they don’t want to live with fascists.’
His account has now been deleted too.
In both cases Ms Vine, a columnist with The Mail on Sunday’s sister paper the Daily Mail, tackled the trolls head on.
She also took on a third, who claimed in an exchange with Shaha that the Goves’ daughter ‘distances’ herself from her father on TikTok.
As others piled in, Ms Vine tweeted: ‘If people can’t see why I’m upset in a week when a man threatened to beat up my husband in front of my kids and where some other men used my daughter as a political football, then I’m sorry. I just am.’
Last night Ms Vine said that Mr Shaha, who she noted used a protected account, and another man had ‘discussed my teenage daughter like a piece of meat on Twitter’.
And she added: ‘It’s one thing to be attacked oneself but when these people come after your children, that’s when it becomes so deeply personal that you can’t ignore it.
‘The fact this bile is being disseminated by teachers is worse.’
Mr Shaha did not respond to a request for comment.
‘Men treated my daughter like a piece of meat online’