Women lose court Troll’s‘rape’threats pensions appeal

An online troll threatened to “rape and kill” a former Wishaw councillor.

Horrified Rosa Zambonini received the chilling message on Facebook , sent by a creep who branded her “SNP scum”.

The independence campaigner posted a copy of the vile message on Twitter, revealing she will report it to the police.

She said: “I just checked my Facebook ‘other’ messages and just found this. The user has deleted their account but I’m absolutely shaken.”

Rosa, who quit as a councillor for her home town after complaining she was a victim of a campaign of harassment, tweeted: “There is no option on Facebook to report it, so I’m going to call the police in the morning and Parliament security.

“I’m laying in my bed crying ‘cause I love what I do so much, but I don’t think I deserve this.”

The cruel message has been condemned by Rosa’s supporters on the social media platform. Women living in North Lanarkshire who were born during the 1950s will be affected by a recent High Court ruling on state pension age.

Shotts’ MP Neil Gray has said the judgement on changes to the age women can claim state pension is “disappointing” but that the fight will continue.

His words came after a landmark legal battle brought to the High Court by campaign group Backto60 was defeated.

The case centred on the state pension age for women which was raised from the age of 60 to 66, to bring it in line with men’s.

Millions of women born in the 1950s are affected, and thousands of them in North Lanarkshire.

Although the decision to raise the age women became eligible was taken in 1995, many of those affected claim the changes were brought in too quickly.

However, judges Lord Justice Irwin and Mrs Justice Whipple rejected claims that the changes were unlawfully discriminatory to women affected on the basis of both age and sex.

Neil Gray, MP for Airdrie and Shotts is the SNP’s spokesperson for Work & Pensions.

He said: ”This ruling is disappointing, not just for my colleagues and I, but for the thousands of women who have been left short-changed by the UK Government’s policy.

“These women have been utterly failed, not just by this Tory UK Government, but previous governments involving Labour, Tories and the Lib Dems going back to the mid-1990s.

“It is time the UK Government finally recognised this injustice and did more to make up for the lack of time and information provided during the changes.

“While no one is against the equalisation of the state pension age, the way that this has been done with little or no notice has left far too many women working longer than they planned to in order to make ends meet.”

The court bid had been crowdfunded and the ruling is a devastating blow to Backto60 and fellow campaign group Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI).

The Shotts MP urged the UK Government to financially compensate those women affected.

He added: “My colleague Mhairi Black has called on the Tory government to undertake a full impact assessment on how successive UK governments have disadvantaged WASPI women.

“Once this assessment has been completed, a payment acknowledging any disadvantage caused should be made to 1950s women without delay.

“British pensioners have the lowest state pension in the developed world and with the injustice for 1950s women, it’s clear that the UK Government cannot be trusted to deliver for our pensioners.

“The time is right for Scotland to have control of state pension and the best way to ensure this is through independence.”