:00:08. > :00:14.At the touch of a button Welsh student, Liam Stacey, became an
:00:14. > :00:19.international hate figure and branded a racist troll. I then
:00:19. > :00:24.realised that what I'd done, just the enormity of it. It was just
:00:24. > :00:29.huge. Tonight for the first time he explains why he made the comments
:00:29. > :00:34.that landed him in jail. It was just stupid, disgusting. I wish if
:00:34. > :00:38.I could turn back the clocks I would. We go undercover to expose
:00:38. > :00:41.the online trolls. I'm clicking on his username to see if there is
:00:41. > :00:49.anything Internet trolls are nasty pieces of work, they go out to
:00:49. > :00:56.shock, offend and upset vulnerable people. Celebrities, grieving
:00:56. > :01:03.relatives, they'll target anyone. Already got a big hole in my heart
:01:03. > :01:06.as it is and these people just make the hole deeper. To them it's a
:01:06. > :01:16.game, and online hate is on the rise. But can the trolls be
:01:16. > :01:28.
:01:28. > :01:38.It was March this year when the abuse of social media and the term
:01:38. > :01:46.internet troll really came to people's attention. Fabrice Muamba,
:01:46. > :01:52.was playing for Bolton Wanderers when he collapsed on the pitch.
:01:52. > :01:56.have seen players turning away almost in horror. Players and fans
:01:56. > :02:01.are praying. The news quickly spread on the social media site
:02:01. > :02:04.Twitter. I'd had a lot to drink, I was then
:02:04. > :02:14.I overheard the news about Muamba during the England, Ireland game or
:02:14. > :02:16.
:02:17. > :02:19.just after that. I don't know why, I decided to tweet about it.
:02:19. > :02:24.year old Liam Stacey, from Pontypridd was drinking in a
:02:24. > :02:34.student bar in Swansea. This is the first time he's told his story.
:02:34. > :02:35.
:02:35. > :02:43.When challenged by other users he used racist language towards them.
:02:43. > :02:47.It just got all out of hand then. I didn't intend on being a racist
:02:47. > :02:53.when I got up that morning, I just wanted to go out with my friends
:02:53. > :03:00.and watch Wales win the Grand Slam. And within an hour, two hours,
:03:01. > :03:03.everything escalated. Thousands of Twitter users had read Stacey's
:03:04. > :03:10.comments. Some are too offensive to broadcast. He was soon reported to
:03:10. > :03:13.the police. The more that people responded the worse his comments
:03:13. > :03:16.became and in particular they were directed towards people who were
:03:16. > :03:24.quite clearly black and from ethnic minority groups who had shown how
:03:24. > :03:29.distressed and offended they were. Superintendent Joe Ruddy, was in
:03:29. > :03:32.overall charge of the investigation for South Wales Police. We'd had
:03:32. > :03:34.complaints from all over the country, hundreds of people phoned
:03:34. > :03:41.their different police forces to complain about the activity that
:03:41. > :03:44.was on going in a very, very quick time. It went viral, not only was
:03:44. > :03:50.it local and national it actually had an international aspect on
:03:50. > :03:53.Twitter and people were complaining to the police to take some action.
:03:53. > :03:56.Realising how serious it was becoming, Stacey tried to distance
:03:56. > :03:58.himself from his previous comments, first saying it was a joke, then
:03:58. > :04:04.that his phone had been hacked, before tweeting an apology and
:04:04. > :04:14.shutting down his account. realised then that what I'd done,
:04:14. > :04:18.just the enormity of it. It was huge across Great Britain. I was
:04:18. > :04:28.just on the phone to my mother then and one of my mates, just crying
:04:28. > :04:31.
:04:31. > :04:35.and it wasn't a good time. I wasn't in a good place at that time to be
:04:35. > :04:42.honest. Just didn't know what was going to happen to me. There were a
:04:42. > :04:45.lot of threats towards me and my family. I was up for hours,
:04:45. > :04:48.couldn't sleep just thinking about everything. And then I woke up in
:04:48. > :04:58.morning and I was arrested by four police officers. I just cried and
:04:58. > :05:06.
:05:06. > :05:08.cried. It all happened so fast. I was in custody then. Stacey was
:05:08. > :05:15.charged, and pleaded guilty to a racially aggravated public order
:05:15. > :05:21.offence. Ten days after first tweeting the comments he was jailed
:05:21. > :05:31.for 56 days. He served 28. Never in a million years would I expect to
:05:31. > :05:39.
:05:39. > :05:41.be put into prison or go to prison. Millions of us have signed up to
:05:41. > :05:51.social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, sharing details of our
:05:51. > :06:01.lives with photos, videos and our These days, getting yourself
:06:01. > :06:01.
:06:01. > :06:11.published is as easy as that. I have the power to communicate with
:06:11. > :06:17.
:06:17. > :06:20.anyone online wherever they live, whoever they are. Perhaps I should
:06:20. > :06:24.make sure that whatever I say on this I'm equally happy to shout out
:06:24. > :06:27.in the street. As more of us are logging on to social media, a
:06:27. > :06:33.sinister side has also emerged. Those using the internet to abuse,
:06:33. > :06:37.insult and offend others. The most extreme are known as Internet
:06:37. > :06:41.Trolls. Their targets can be anyone from celebrities to school children
:06:41. > :06:47.and even the dead. Paul is an online investigator. He doesn't
:06:47. > :06:52.want us to use his full name. With his help we'll be going undercover
:06:52. > :06:57.online to investigate the trolls. Internet trolls are nasty pieces of
:06:57. > :07:03.work, they go out to shock, offend and upset vulnerable people. And
:07:03. > :07:06.the more people that they can upset the happier they feel. They exist
:07:06. > :07:10.under a shroud of anonymity, they feel they won't get caught or be
:07:10. > :07:16.held accountable for the messages that they post. Paul says there are
:07:16. > :07:19.different forms of trolling. Anyone can go online and be jackass and
:07:19. > :07:23.post nasty messages, but that's different to a concerted effort of
:07:23. > :07:25.a troll. In fact, some of the comments that we've seen that
:07:25. > :07:29.people have been arrested for, they've actually used their own
:07:29. > :07:32.names. Now a real troll, a professional troll would never do
:07:32. > :07:37.that because they know they could be traced and held accountable for
:07:37. > :07:42.their litany of horrific messages sometimes over years. They really
:07:42. > :07:52.have to hide themselves. And that gives them a great feeling of
:07:52. > :07:58.freedom to get away with whatever they want to do. For the prolific
:07:58. > :08:00.internet trolls, nothing is off limits. Some of the most extreme
:08:00. > :08:04.forms of trolling involve targeting those who've died and their
:08:04. > :08:12.families. Online condolence books set up in memory of people are
:08:12. > :08:14.known as RIP sites. Sonia Oatley and Catherine Broomfield's
:08:14. > :08:19.daughters were both murdered. They've formed a friendship through
:08:19. > :08:24.their shared grief. And the two mums have also both experienced
:08:24. > :08:31.abuse from the trolls. In October 2010, 15-year-old Rebecca Aylward's
:08:31. > :08:37.body was found in a wood near Bridgend. She'd been battered to
:08:37. > :08:41.death by her former boyfriend, 16- year old Joshua Davies. A number of
:08:41. > :08:49.online RIP pages were set up in Rebecca's memory. Her mum, Sonia,
:08:49. > :08:52.says having the sites helped with the loss. I thought it would be a
:08:52. > :08:58.nice idea so that all her friends could comment, like on her birthday,
:08:58. > :09:01.wish her happy birthday. I think it's very important for them to
:09:01. > :09:11.acknowledge her and for her brother and sister to see all the tributes
:09:11. > :09:17.that have been posted to their sister. It's nice to keep her
:09:17. > :09:20.memory alive, it's very important. But just days after Rebecca's
:09:20. > :09:30.murder a number of people wrote abusive messages about Rebecca, one
:09:30. > :09:40.describing her as a dumb whore. think it's absolutely appalling.
:09:40. > :09:40.
:09:40. > :09:50.I'm really, really sad that somebody could do that. It's sick.
:09:50. > :09:51.
:09:51. > :09:55.Praying on other people's grief. Just making it worse for families.
:09:55. > :10:05.As if we're not suffering enough. Catherine Broomfield has also
:10:05. > :10:06.
:10:06. > :10:10.suffered. Her daughter, Kirsty, was murdered in 2009 in Swansea. Her
:10:10. > :10:18.body was found in a suitcase near the M4 in Bridgend. Her husband,
:10:18. > :10:21.Paul Grabham, was jailed for her murder. The worst feeling in the
:10:21. > :10:25.whole wide world. Nothing can hurt you as much as losing your child,
:10:25. > :10:28.nothing at all. It's a pain I'll have with me for the rest of my
:10:28. > :10:31.life. She created a memorial garden for Kirsty, and set up an online
:10:32. > :10:34.RIP site which she visits daily, but the trolls have also been.
:10:35. > :10:38.few of them saying that they'd have liked to have had sexual
:10:38. > :10:46.relationships with Kirsty before she was killed. And it's a pity
:10:46. > :10:50.she's in wooden box. I wondered who was doing it. It makes you
:10:50. > :10:57.suspicious of everybody because you just don't know who it is. It just
:10:57. > :11:01.hurts, already got a big hole in my heart as it is, you know. And these
:11:01. > :11:05.people just make the hole deeper, that's what they're doing.
:11:05. > :11:13.Catherine is angry and wants more to be done to stop those abusing
:11:13. > :11:19.the dead online. It's horrific and these people that do it are really
:11:19. > :11:29.vile scum. They're the dregs of society and they should get hefty
:11:29. > :11:32.prison sentences for doing this to Liam Stacey knows only too well
:11:32. > :11:38.that getting caught for online abuse can mean jail. Prison itself,
:11:38. > :11:41.looking back on it, it flew. I was keeping myself occupied just
:11:41. > :11:44.writing nearly every day, just trying to get by as quick as
:11:44. > :11:51.possible to get out to see my friends and family. It seemed like
:11:51. > :11:56.it flew by. But at the time every day seemed like a month in itself.
:11:56. > :12:02.He has been branded a racist and a troll. I didn't even know what a
:12:02. > :12:08.troll was. Now I do. Would you consider yourself to be a troll?
:12:08. > :12:12.no. Mine was a one-off. People actually get up in the mornings and
:12:12. > :12:20.try and do things that I did after a stupid outburst when I was drunk.
:12:20. > :12:24.People do that every day. A quick search online soon reveals trolls.
:12:24. > :12:31.There are places where trolls live online. There are many messages
:12:31. > :12:34.boards and social networks. Choose a subject and you will find trolls.
:12:34. > :12:40.It doesn't take long before we find a very active troll who appears to
:12:40. > :12:45.be Welsh. We can start to see some of the messages that he has been
:12:45. > :12:48.leaving on people's videos and you can see a couple of RIP videos. I
:12:48. > :12:51.think there is this troll culture out there which involves being as
:12:51. > :12:55.obnoxious as you can, so when you do get an RIP video going up or
:12:55. > :13:04.somebody is in the news there has been some tragedy then the trolls
:13:04. > :13:11.will be attracted to those sites. And then high five each other in
:13:11. > :13:13.their own little communities. The messages are very disturbing. They
:13:13. > :13:23.show a disconnect from people's feelings, they show a disconnect
:13:23. > :13:33.
:13:33. > :13:42.from real life. There is also a worrying amount of messages written
:13:42. > :13:48.about children. He might leave comments which can be really
:13:48. > :13:50.offensive about young girls. offensive that much of what the
:13:50. > :13:53.troll has written can't be broadcast. Then, as we are
:13:53. > :13:56.investigating the Welsh case, we come across one of the most
:13:56. > :13:59.disturbing examples of how these trolls work happening at the same
:13:59. > :14:04.time as we are online. In an anonymous forum used by trolls,
:14:04. > :14:10.someone posts a link to a video of a 17-year-old boy. I have some bad
:14:10. > :14:20.news I want to tell you all. I have chronic heart rejection and I won't
:14:20. > :14:28.
:14:28. > :14:32.be here for as long as I thought. This is a real teenager and he
:14:32. > :14:39.really does have a life-threatening condition. This is a YouTube video.
:14:39. > :14:42.They are saying this person has chronic heart rejection. Our
:14:42. > :14:50.sympathies need to be shared and basically this is incitement to go
:14:50. > :14:53.onto YouTube and leave comments on this poor boy's videos. We can
:14:53. > :14:59.start to see some of the messages which have been left underneath
:14:59. > :15:08.that troll community and some of them are dreadful. Somebody has
:15:08. > :15:13.just posted that right now. minute ago it says. Yeah, there are
:15:13. > :15:16.hundreds of messages just attacking this guy. Well, at the start of
:15:16. > :15:26.this programme, I just thought it was individuals who come across
:15:26. > :15:28.
:15:28. > :15:31.sites and write nasty stuff. But what you have just shown me now is
:15:31. > :15:36.a site where people meet, decide who we are going to go for and all
:15:36. > :15:38.just go for it. Thought about, pre- planned and deliberate. A co-
:15:38. > :15:46.ordinated attack where they will be engulfed with thousands and
:15:46. > :15:52.thousands of hate messages. It is difficult to understand the reasons
:15:52. > :15:57.behind the behaviour of the trolls and what they get out of it. Dr
:15:57. > :16:04.Emma Short is a psychologist and an expert on cyberstalking. She has
:16:04. > :16:07.spent time studying the trolls. find sites like that and then
:16:07. > :16:14.create a really offensive discussion is really an almost
:16:14. > :16:17.kudos in the community of trolls. And actually the people affected by
:16:17. > :16:20.it, really affected by it, the people who have lost people and are
:16:20. > :16:25.attempting to pay tribute to them, are just really just collateral
:16:25. > :16:29.damage. One of the most disturbing cases of online abuse happened last
:16:29. > :16:32.month. Sheffield United and Wales striker Ched Evans was jailed for
:16:32. > :16:39.five years for raping a 19-year-old woman at a hotel near Rhyl in
:16:39. > :16:48.Denbighshire. After Evans' conviction, the victim became the
:16:48. > :16:51.target of viscous online abuse. And it didn't just stop there. The 19-
:16:51. > :16:54.year-old girl was repeatedly named online, and that is despite the
:16:55. > :17:02.fact that as a rape victim she has a legal, life-long right to
:17:02. > :17:06.anonymity. The spread of her name online lead police to issue a
:17:06. > :17:10.warning that they would prosecute people. They described the
:17:10. > :17:13.publication of her name as profoundly disturbing. The
:17:13. > :17:19.teenager's mother said that putting her name on Twitter is just another
:17:19. > :17:25.horrendous ordeal for her. North Wales Police are investigating. So
:17:25. > :17:31.far 16 people have been arrested. But for the victim the damage has
:17:31. > :17:36.been done. The law on not naming rape victims is clear, but how to
:17:36. > :17:38.apply it online is a new challenge for the authorities. In Liam
:17:38. > :17:46.Stacey's case, his comments and prosecution sparked national debate
:17:46. > :17:51.about what you can and can't say online. It was racist language that
:17:51. > :17:57.you used? Would you normally use the racist words you used that day
:17:57. > :18:02.on Twitter? Never. Why would I? I wouldn't want to upset my friends,
:18:02. > :18:10.definitely wouldn't want to upset anyone that I don't know. Why did
:18:11. > :18:20.you use them? Drunken stupidity. That is the only thing I can say
:18:21. > :18:22.
:18:22. > :18:25.about it. I don't know why I did it. I really don't. The use of racist
:18:25. > :18:35.language and the way your tweets seemed to escalate after that, can
:18:35. > :18:42.
:18:42. > :18:45.you explain that? To be honest, I can't. It must have been that I was
:18:45. > :18:49.getting so many Tweets towards me I was kind of defending myself, but
:18:49. > :18:54.the way I did it was disgusting. If I could turn back the clocks, I
:18:54. > :19:03.would. I had only had Twitter for about two weeks. And I didn't
:19:03. > :19:06.really know how it worked. What I struggle to get my head around the
:19:06. > :19:10.week before I was a normal kid getting on with my work in uni,
:19:10. > :19:16.getting on with life, playing rugby with all my mates, then week or two
:19:16. > :19:26.later going to prison. Just everything had been turned upside
:19:26. > :19:27.
:19:27. > :19:31.down. I think that is going to go down as a landmark in terms of a
:19:31. > :19:40.lesson in life. The posts were utterly offensive, fulfilled all
:19:40. > :19:46.criteria. But again if that had happened in an isolated space
:19:46. > :19:49.outside a pub it would have been a very different story. What we must
:19:49. > :19:51.learn from this is restraint and is about the fact that you are not
:19:51. > :20:01.just communicating with your friends, you are broadcasting, like
:20:01. > :20:08.television, broadcast to whoever is tuned in at the time. With that
:20:08. > :20:11.There is no specific law against trolling instead laws from
:20:11. > :20:17.malicious communication to public order are being applied to what is
:20:17. > :20:23.written online. A number of people were prosecuted for comments made
:20:23. > :20:31.on social media during the riots of August last year. The offences they
:20:31. > :20:35.were charged with and the sentences they were given varied. The Welsh
:20:35. > :20:39.troll, like many others, behaves as if he is beyond the law. With
:20:39. > :20:47.Paul's help, I am going undercover online to see if we can find out
:20:47. > :20:54.who is behind the username. Paul has set up a fake troll profile.
:20:54. > :21:04.am going to post him a message. I am going to go into his account and
:21:04. > :21:07.
:21:07. > :21:09.send him a comment and just ask him to send me an email. The troll
:21:09. > :21:15.continues to post offensive messages including graphic sexual
:21:15. > :21:18.comments about children. Within a couple of days, we have an email
:21:18. > :21:23.address which gives us more clues as to who this person is and where
:21:23. > :21:29.they live. There is no specific law of trolling, which means it is
:21:29. > :21:32.difficult to know how big a problem it really is. The different
:21:32. > :21:37.offences which can apply make it hard to get any accurate figures
:21:37. > :21:41.for how many arrests and prosecutions there have been.
:21:41. > :21:49.the South Wales Police have seen over 100% increase in the number of
:21:49. > :21:57.social networking type occurrences in the last two years. That is
:21:57. > :22:00.probably just tip of the iceberg of what is going on out there.
:22:00. > :22:03.high profile social media user says not only is it happening more, it
:22:03. > :22:11.is also becoming more sinister. Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson is
:22:11. > :22:14.celebrated for her sporting success, achieving 11 Paralympic gold medals.
:22:14. > :22:18.She is a Welsh icon, but to the internet trolls she is just another
:22:18. > :22:20.target. Tanni recently wrote an article about her experiences of
:22:20. > :22:26.disability access to public transport after having to crawl off
:22:26. > :22:30.a train. Probably the most offensive were along the lines of
:22:30. > :22:35.people like you should be in cattle trucks at the back of trains so you
:22:35. > :22:39.don't contaminate normal people. You know, some of the excuses I
:22:39. > :22:43.have had from people are you can't stop me, it is against my human
:22:43. > :22:46.rights. Actually, no, it is not. Or it is my freedom of speech and I
:22:46. > :22:49.think it is very interesting how people wouldn't maybe say that to
:22:49. > :22:54.somebody in person, but when they hide behind a computer or a phone
:22:54. > :22:57.they think they are entitled to be incredibly offensive. It feels like
:22:57. > :23:03.the criminal justice system is trying to play catch up with social
:23:03. > :23:06.media. At the moment, the legislation is not clear. People
:23:06. > :23:09.are being prosecuted in all sorts of different ways and the
:23:09. > :23:16.legislation we have at the moment is outdated. It was written before
:23:16. > :23:19.we had social media and social media is moving so quickly. I am
:23:19. > :23:23.not usually one to press for more legislation, however, I think we
:23:23. > :23:26.need to make sure we stop this in its tracks and it doesn't get worse
:23:26. > :23:29.and we don't just keep racketing up hate crime against people. --
:23:29. > :23:32.ratchetting up. Because it will result in some really nasty things
:23:32. > :23:35.happening. You know, not just words, it will result in people getting
:23:35. > :23:45.killed. Tanni believes what people write can escalate into action and
:23:45. > :23:48.
:23:49. > :23:51.something needs to be done and fast. Jim Brisbane is from the Crown
:23:51. > :23:56.Prosecution Service. He says anyone abusing online communication is
:23:56. > :23:58.risking prosecution. Social media is very clearly something that the
:23:58. > :24:02.vast majority of the population enjoy and use very responsibility
:24:02. > :24:08.and there is no reason why that can't continue to develop in that
:24:08. > :24:11.way. But there is now an opportunity to make it clear for
:24:11. > :24:14.those who overstep the mark and abuse the privilege of being able
:24:15. > :24:17.to communicate in such a wide way that the law that applies to other
:24:17. > :24:25.settings and other forms of communication can apply equally to
:24:25. > :24:34.what they are doing. And, if that is not recognised, then there may
:24:34. > :24:37.be consequences. The Welsh troll logs on almost every night. After
:24:37. > :24:42.monitoring him for several weeks, we email the troll using the
:24:42. > :24:49.address given to our undercover profile. We tell him we are making
:24:49. > :24:53.a television programme and want to ask him about his online behaviour.
:24:53. > :25:01.In an email that has been sent to us the troll says, us trolls like
:25:01. > :25:05.to remain anonymous. I can tell you why I troll, though. I have had a
:25:05. > :25:11.difficult life and have received much abuse off people. Upsetting
:25:12. > :25:18.people makes me feel better. I have toned down a lot recently because
:25:18. > :25:20.of the law. But within hours of sending the message, he is back
:25:20. > :25:26.online mocking a report about two teenage suicides and writing highly
:25:26. > :25:35.offensive sexual comments about teenage girls. Clearly, what he
:25:35. > :25:45.posts is damaging. He rehearses this, does it to him, become more
:25:45. > :25:46.
:25:46. > :25:49.of a reality or is the satisfaction replaying certain fantasies. Is he
:25:50. > :25:55.fixated on this kind of criminal act or abuse or is he just after
:25:55. > :26:05.the outrage? I would say depending on where he gets satisfaction from
:26:05. > :26:06.
:26:06. > :26:15.would have implication for how Liam Stacey's online behaviour has
:26:15. > :26:21.made him a convicted criminal. Muamba is making a good recovery
:26:22. > :26:26.and had an emotional return to his home ground. Liam Stacey has a very
:26:26. > :26:31.uncertain future. When he should have been studying for his final
:26:31. > :26:34.university exams, he was locked up in a prison cell. Swansea
:26:34. > :26:41.University had suspended him but he is now planning to sit his biology
:26:41. > :26:50.exams next year. That is all I have ever wanted to do is to work as a
:26:50. > :26:53.scientist. Well, obviously a criminal record is not helping. I'm
:26:53. > :27:02.almost sure it will affect my job seeking opportunities, but I'm
:27:02. > :27:06.still going to be determined to get a job. The law isn't about to
:27:06. > :27:09.change. But with social media becoming part of our everyday lives
:27:09. > :27:16.and all of us having the power to broadcast our every thought there
:27:16. > :27:19.will be future prosecutions. There is a determination to deal with
:27:19. > :27:27.this kind of offence if a victim makes a complaint anonymity is not
:27:27. > :27:32.something that should be relied upon by anybody. We have exposed a
:27:32. > :27:35.prolific Welsh troll. And tracked him down to the Abergele area. He
:27:35. > :27:38.refused to answer more of our questions. But North Wales Police
:27:38. > :27:43.are aware of him and say they will investigate offences brought to
:27:43. > :27:50.their attention. We have reported the troll to YouTube. They have
:27:50. > :27:55.shut him down. Sonia and Catherine are determined the behaviour of the
:27:55. > :28:03.trolls won't force them to remove the RIP pages. Why should I give
:28:03. > :28:08.that up because of some sick individuals? I won't let them win.
:28:08. > :28:11.I will never take my page down, never. If you wouldn't say it in
:28:11. > :28:17.the street, then don't say it on the internet. It is exactly the
:28:17. > :28:23.same. Liam's life changed with the click of a button. He is