https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/former-ni-postmaster-caught-up-in-horizon-scandal-exposed-as-loyalist-troll/a1418608180.html
#Online bully boy tries to laugh off prolific history of vile posts when confronted by Sunday Life
John Toner
Today at 09:02
An ex-worker embroiled in the Post Office Horizon scandal who has been exposed as a prolific loyalist troll claims it was “all a bit of fun”.
Former sub-postmaster Alan McLaughlin (64) used bogus X (formerly Twitter) accounts to target high-profile politicians including Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O’Neill, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and ex-justice minister Naomi Long.
The Newtownabbey man even sent abuse to Michaela McAreavey’s grieving widower John, labelling him a “Nazi”, as well as targeting Oxford University scholar Dr Jennifer Cassidy.
Using accounts @typers7 and @MadeInNI1921, the former postie described Ms O’Neill as an “uneducated frumpy housewife” and joked about Mrs Long being unable to fit through a door.
He also ‘liked’ several controversial posts, including one which mocked up Mr Eastwood in Nazi uniform and another from a user imagining Sinn Fein politicians being blown up at a Hamas funeral in occupied Palestine.
“It’s all just a bit of fun,” he bragged when approached by Sunday Life.
He added: “Ex-accounts, I think you mean. What’s the point of this gripe?
“This is absolutely superb, wonderful — I couldn’t care less about it.”
In one post he body-shames Mrs Long by saying: “Fortunately, there is simply no way Big Sister could manage to get in through the front door.”
When asked about this, he retorted “Ah, well”, before putting on a funny voice and saying: “Oh, that’s terrible. Yes, well, lordy lordy, what shall we do?”
An Alliance Party spokesman told this newspaper: “As is so often the case when such vile trolls are unmasked, they are more often than not figures to be pitied rather than ridiculed. That is certainly the case in this instance.
“However, there is no justification for the relentless abuse and hounding of public figures in which they engage.”
In a post sent to Mr McAreavey, whose wife was murdered on honeymoon in Mauritius in 2011, he described him as a “little Nazi” who “celebrates sectarian eliminationism”.
When this was put to him, McLaughlin spluttered: “I don’t even know who John McAreavey is, never heard of him.”
He added: “I tell you what, this is pointless, I couldn’t care less what you say or do, so it’s pretty clear isn’t it?
“Get a grip! My erudition and my humour hasn’t contravened any law whatsoever.”
Among his online portfolio of hate, which runs to over 10,000 posts on the @MadeInNI1921 account alone, he claimed the Irish language is not “native” to Ireland, and attacked east Belfast language activist Linda Ervine, saying she knows “less than nothing” about linguistics.
He also insisted loyalist Winkie Irvine had been arrested in 2022 as part of “black ops directed by Dublin” to stop anti-protocol rallies.
And McLaughlin ‘liked’ a tweet about LVF leader Billy Wright, which read “Wright to the end”.
The ex-sub-postmaster was one of the first in Northern Ireland to take legal action after being convicted of false accounting offences while in charge of Brookfield Post Office at Tennent Street in Belfast.
His conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal.
The scandal has been popularised by recent ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office starring Toby Jones.
McLaughlin claimed last week that he felt like the lead character.
He said: “I was very like Alan Bates in the drama. I argued and disputed with the Post Office management from the very beginning,
“I was convinced from the start their system was wrong and did my best to sound the alarm.”
He is the brother of Ian McLaughlin, a DUP councillor in west Belfast. Ian McLaughlin was at the centre of controversy during the council elections over his connection to a UDA-linked online account.
The West Belfast UPRG Twitter thread was responsible for posting offensive content, including sectarianism, misogyny and racism.
by columboscoat
3 comments
I wonder what his name on here is
> “Get a grip! My erudition and my humour hasn’t contravened any law whatsoever.”
O rly?
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/section/127
> A person sending any public electronic communications network a message or other content that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character. A person causes any such message or content to be sent.
Also this guy is Trump Level conspiracy.
> He also insisted loyalist Winkie Irvine had been arrested in 2022 as part of “black ops directed by Dublin” to stop anti-protocol rallies.
Arrested by a UK Police Force but ordered by an Irish Government…. *rrrrrriight*
> If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.