Jailed troll sorry for Caroline Criado-Perez death threat tweets

Isabella Sorley says drinking led to violent posts that ended in prison

Stella Creasy MP, left, was threatened after she supported the campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, right (EPA)

A Twitter user who was jailed for sending tweets including death threats to a feminist campaigner, has said that she is disgusted by her behaviour, which she said was prompted by a heavy night of drinking.

Isabella Sorley spoke to bullying campaigner Natalie Farzaneh for BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, in an attempt to discover what caused the 24-year-old to send the tweets that led to her being sentenced to 12 weeks in jail.

The tweets were sent after an "incredibly heavy night out", Sorley said, but she regrets the messages and warned other Twitter users not to make the same mistakes.

Interviewer Natalie Farzaneh told Sorley that she couldn’t blame alcohol entirely for her actions, arguing that she still had control.

"I don't want to put all the blame on alcohol as ultimately I've got my own mind, but it definitely distorted my brain.

"When I woke up I realised what I'd said was completely out of order."

Farzaneh, who is an ambassador for the charity BeatBullying UK, has spoken out about bullying on social media after being subject to it on the internet and at school.

Farzaneh read Sorley threats that she had sent, including "just got out of prison and would happily do more time to see you buried” and “Rape?! I'd do a lot worse things than rape you!!"

Sorley was sentenced in January, alongside 25-year-old John Nimmo. Another Twitter user has since been sent to prison.

The messages followed a high-profile campaign by Criado-Perez to feature a woman on British bank notes, after campaigner Elizabeth Fry was replaced by Winston Churchill. The campaign successfully lobbied for Jane Austen to appear on the British £10 note.

A restraining order is in place to keep Sorley from making contact with Criado-Perez. But the campaigner told the BBC that while Sorley’s interview was unlikely to make a difference to her, she would be pleased if the experience could stop similar abuse happening in future.

Since Sorley left prison in February, she has been convicted for new offences including assault and being drunk and disorderly, and has been back to prison. She said that she took part in the interview so that she could warn other people about what happened, and so that she can "help kids in the future not muck up their life the way I mucked up mine".

Sorley said that she would never send menacing tweets again, and expressed regret that those tweets would continue to define her life.