Sherlock star Amanda Abbington’s fiancé Jonathan Goodwin broke his silence on social media this evening and shared some of the abusive messages they have both been getting from online trolls.
Abbington recently sat down with Channel 4 presenter Krishnan Guru-Murphy and revealed the ongoing and “relentless” trolling she has received since issuing her complaint against Giovanni Pernice.
When asked how life had been since the claims were made, she revealed: “It’s been brutal and relentless and unforgiving. The aftermath has been something that I wasn’t expecting – the death threats and rape threats towards not only myself but to my daughter.
“And threats of death to my son. And Giovanni fans. When you get one or two of those you can go, ‘Oh God,’ you know. But I was getting dozens a day on social media from people saying, ‘Just go and kill yourself, I hope you die of cancer’.
“Just kill yourself, your kids will be better off without you as a mother, I hope your daughter gets raped, I hope your son gets stabbed. You don’t deserve any good things for what you’ve done. How could you destroy something like Strictly?’.
“You’re a snowflake and an idiot, you’re stupid. Poor Giovanni’ It was just all the time.”
This evening, her fiancé – former escapologist and daredevil – took to his Instagram story to give one example of the types of messages he and Abbington have been receiving from fans of Strictly and Pernice.
The message read: “I hope you’re Mrs. watched her back, we are coming after you and Amanda.”
Adding the screenshot to his story, he captioned the post: “People are nice aren’t they… still it keeps coming.”
In his first interview since Abbington’s claims came to light, he told the MailOnline today: “If you watch the dances she did, tell me that’s a person that’s not putting in 100 per cent effort. So it’s not about that.
Amanda Abbington broke down in tears when discussing the death threats she had received
CHANNEL 4
“What happened is she left a game show because she didn’t like the way she was being treated and that’s it. That’s what she did. How she was treated – and she’s said this herself – was not great in ways that I can’t go into.
“But it’s not about strict or militant training. It’s other stuff and I can’t talk about it, but it will all come up. The truth will come out.”
During her interview with Guru-Murphy, she also alleged that there are “50 hours” worth of footage between the pair of them which show how Pernice behaved and acted towards her.
She noted that she would be happy for anyone to watch the clips, but claimed it was Pernice and his lawyers who were blocking any of them being released to the public.
Giovanni Pernice has continued to deny the accusations made by Abbington
BBC
Pernice continues to vehemently deny the ongoing allegations from Abbington and three more of his former partners and issued a new statement today through his spokesperson.
It reads: “We are cooperating fully with the BBC’s review process. All parties have been asked to respect this process and to not speak to the media before it concludes.
“We will continue to respect the integrity of the investigation and believe it is the right forum for all the evidence to be reviewed. As part of the evidence-led review, the BBC has shared the allegations they have been able to substantiate with us.
“They do not resemble Amanda’s latest allegations, given to Channel 4, in any shape or form. Giovanni refutes any claim of threatening or abusive behaviour, and having provided the BBC with his evidence, is confident that the review will prove this.
“We would urge people to wait for the review’s conclusion and not to pay heed to these very serious and defamatory allegations that have no evidence in support of them.”