‘I am going to dog nap your sausage dog and then kill it with a sander,’ Polegate man threatened online

A Polegate man has been threatened online as trolls say they are going to kill his sausage dog with a sander. Harry Askham, who is a plumber, started to receive odd reviews of his business online in September – and odd items were sent to his mother’s house including a glitter bomb. Mr Askham said, “Someone hired a digger to my mum’s address that I had to go and pick up. “They all sort of died down for a bit until probably about a month ago and it started up again. It was again nothing really made sense. It was all sort of weird, funny reviews. “It was a load of nonsense until Sunday night (March 14) when I received the one saying, ‘I am going to kidnap your dog and kill it with a sander,’ and then last night (March 15) received another one saying, ‘Dog is dead.’ “The other ones I thought, ‘Okay, I can just get them removed. I can brush it off. I don’t really care,’ but this has got a bit threatening and vile now.” Mr Askham also said his partner, who has been the target of vile sexual comments, is now scared to walk their dogs since the reviews. After the original comments Mr Askham received an email with an image of someone holding a sign saying, ‘Dog is dead’. Mr Askham says he has no clue why someone would want to write these reviews, which were left on Trustpilot. Trustpilot is a website dedicated to consumer reviews where people can rate products and services for the public to see. In regards to who it could be Mr Askham said, “It must be someone who must not like me online, either Instagram or Twitter or something like that for some reason but I cannot think of anyone that I have really upset or annoyed for them to do that. “I honestly couldn’t give you any idea of why it could be and what it could be.” Not only has the trolling affected Mr Askham and his partner but it has also potentially impacted his company. Mr Askham said, “I have quite a few customers say, ‘I have looked at your reviews and you have got some weird ones,’ which is not great that I then have to explain to them that, ‘Yes I know. I have seen them. I don’t know why they are happening but they are happening,’ which is quite embarrassing. “There might have been some people who have looked at that and thought, ‘I don’t want to employ him.’” Trustpilot was informed of the hateful reviews. A spokesperson for the company said, “All flagged reviews remain online while they are being investigated, except for content flagged as “harmful or illegal”, which we hide whilst we investigate in order to protect the public and comply with regulation. “This review was reported to us for being harmful or illegal on March 15 and our Content Integrity Team assessed the content and took it offline swiftly the same day. “Unfortunately, we’re unable to disclose any further details to Mr Askham about the reviewer due to our privacy policy and procedures, but should the police reach out to us directly with the appropriate order requiring the disclosure of the information available, we’d be happy to assist in relation to this matter.” The reviews have also been reported to Sussex Police who say they are looking into the incident. A spokesperson for the police said, “Police received a report of malicious communications shortly before 7.30am on Monday (March 15). The report related to abusive comments being made online. “Officers are looking into the matter and anyone with any information is asked to contact police online or by calling 101 quoting serial 146 of 15/03.”