NEW evidence has arisen that a Tory councillor may be behind a pro-Union troll Twitter account which described Nicola Sturgeon as "Bute House Golem".
Derek Wann, who serves on Angus Council for Arbroath East and Lunan, was linked to an anonymous account called "Lady Whistledown" after it shared a link to a council press release - where he was the only person quoted - with the caption "my comments".
Wann had posted the same press release on his official Facebook page just 15 minutes prior.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon demands Tory U-turn on EU settled status deadline
Social media users theorised Lady Whistledown's post had been intended for an official account, claiming Wann had outed himself.
The Courier first reported on the story, but The National has found further evidence linking the councillor with the account. The councillor has denied the allegations.
The Lady Whistledown account, under the username AngusFreeofSNP, was filled with vicious posts criticising the First Minister - including one calling her a "f****** ned" and plenty retweeting of Unionist antagonists, prior to its deletion on Wednesday afternoon.
The profile, which had 115 followers and a profile picture of Marilyn Monroe, reads: “Support Scotland in the Union not a separatist”.
Now, The National has discovered that the mobile phone number linked to the Twitter account has the same last two numbers as Wann's.
Wann has so far not responded to The National’s request for comment, but the Lady Whistledown account was deleted an hour after we lodged the request regarding the mobile number similarities.
A second Angus councillor, independent Tommy Stewart, also has the same digits at the end of his council mobile number. When contacted, Stewart said he doesn’t have a Twitter account, use the site, or intend to.
But instead of royal courts and romantic tittle-tattle, this "Lady Whistledown" was much more concerned with political attacks on the SNP and the First Minister.
READ MORE: Covid: What does the Scottish Government's new plan mean for you?
As well as the press release, there are some similarities between Lady Whistledown and Wann’s posts.
There were two similarly worded posts hitting out at Scottish Labour’s election candidate Grame McKenzie who had posted campaign materials in the wrong Angus constituency.
At 2.11pm on April 26, the Lady Whistledown account wrote: “Ouch – does the labour candidate really think Forfar is in Angus South?
“How could anyone support a candidate that is leafleting the wrong town. Parachuted in.”
Exactly two minutes later, Wann shared a post on his Facebook page which read: “Labour candidate for Angus South is leafleting Forfar – when you parachute a candidate in, you surely provide them with a geography lesson.
"How can anyone support locally a candidate that doesn’t even leaflet in the right town?”
LibDem councillor Ben Lawrie said he has been aware of the account since the end of last year and that it “appears to be an anonymous account used for criticising political opponents and promoting the aims of the Conservative Party in Angus”.
He said that he thinks parts of the content from the Whistledown account displays a level of knowledge about the inner workings of the council that go beyond a general member of the public.
He said: “The account posts some pretty unsavoury stuff, targeted criticisms directed at accounts of local politicians as well as retweeting misogynistic and transphobic content.
“I can understand why the author of these tweets would not want to be associated with them, instead opting to remain anonymous.
“If this person turned out to be one of my fellow councillors I would be deeply disappointed in them. It’s downright cowardly.”
Wann (pictured above) denied running the account, and said he had discussed with colleagues that there may be a vendetta against him.
He said: “It’s definitely not my account, I can tell you that 100%.
“At the end of the day, I have no comment because it’s not my account. If somebody is putting this online, there’s not much I can do.
“It could be somebody I know but I don’t think it is.
“My Facebook account is open, my councillor Twitter account is open. It bewilders me that this is being linked to me in any way.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel