Miss England hopeful Tabitha claims that in two months, the police investigation is no closer to finding those responsible for the fake nude images shared by social media trolls
A beauty queen has slammed online trolls after photos were stolen from her Instagram account and edited to make her appear naked.
Tabitha Bennett, who is in the running to be Miss England, said the fake images were shared on fake social media profiles which were also used to send abusive messages to other beauty queens.
The 20-year-old said the abuse made her want to pull out of the competition and made her question who she could trust.
A Meta spokesperson told the BBC that the fake accounts had been taken down, while Cheshire Police confirmed it was investigating the online harassment.
Tabitha was crowned Miss Lancashire in March, but four months later the harassment began.
She said: “I love Instagram, I spend my life on it. Such a positive platform has such a negativity and I don’t know how they haven’t learned from previous events with other people.”
Fake accounts using Tabitha’s images have also sent abusive messages to people she knows, including the organisers of Miss En gland.She said some accounts also shared a picture that had been edited to make her appear topless.
The post included a “chatline” phone number which actually linked to a charity event she was running as part of the pageant. Tabitha, from Knutsford, Cheshire, reported the harassment to Cheshire Police two months ago. She claims no action has been taken.
She said: “A policeman came out and he was fantastic and we really thought we were going to get to the bottom of this. When they come and they give you so much hope and then you don’t hear anything, you think ‘how else are we going to find out’?”
When approached by the Mirror, Cheshire Police said it was following several leads to identify those responsible.
A spokesperson for the force said: “We can confirm that we have received reports of harassment relating to fake online social media profiles. The allegations were initially reported on Wednesday 16 July and advice was provided to the victim.
“A further report was made on Tuesday 9 September and officers are following a number of lines of enquiry, including telecoms analysis, to identify those responsible.”
Tabitha’s mum Vicky is also a former Miss Blackpool and has been on the receiving end of the abusive comments.
“A lot of it has been directed towards me, saying that I’m chasing my dream through Tabitha, which is absolutely not true,” she said. “Tabitha’s wanted to be Miss England since she was a little girl. It’s always been her dream.”
The Miss England grand finals will be held on November 20 and Ms Bennett is concerned the activity will start again.
“How upsetting that a build up to something so amazing is going to be overshadowed by me thinking that this is going to flare up,” she said.
