Newlyweds receive hate mail over marriage stance

A newlywed couple have become the target of a hate campaign after supporting traditional marriage.

The cyber bullying started after Rhys and Esther Curnow took part in handing over a petition to 10 Downing Street containing more than half a million signatures in support of traditional marriage.

The petition was launched by the Coalition for Marriage (C4M) after the Government announced a consultation into changing the law on marriage to include same-sex couples.

C4M said the Curnows have received more than 100 hate messages to their personal Facebook accounts in what appears to be an orchestrated campaign against the 23-year-olds, who married in March.

When the petition was reported on Pink News, readers expressed their anger in the comments section, with one posting a link to Mr Curnow's Facebook page.

A Facebook message sent to the couple said in block capitals: "GO DIE AND ROT IN HELL."

Another user said: “I really hope you & your husband turn out infertile & die of cancer. That would be something to celebrate.”

One Twitter user wrote: “Esther Curnow needs a punch in the face. That is all.”

The couple have reported the messages to the police but The Telegraph reports that officers believe there is no evidence of a crime being committed as the messages did not contain direct threats.

Other supporters of traditional marriage have also received threatening messages. Tory MP David Burrowes received a death threat, while the Archbishop of York received racist hate mail.

Colin Hart, C4M campaign director, said: “The level of abuse that this young couple have been subjected too is shocking. Having people going out of their way to trawl through the internet to find personal facebook pages, just so they can send vile and hate filled rants is appalling.

“Rhys and Esther are a lovely couple who agreed to take part in the presentation of our petition to Downing Street, because they care about this issue and want to take part in the debate around the merits, or otherwise of this change.

"It is completely unacceptable that a small group of mindless bullies continue to try and close down this debate by sending out threatening, racist and harassing emails."