Karen Carney: Football Association appalled by rape and death threats on Instagram - BBC Sport
The Football Association urges police to tackle abuse on social media after death threats are made to England's Karen Carney.
Last updated on .From the section Women's Football

The Football Association has urged police to tackle abuse on social media after rape and death threats were made to England midfielder Karen Carney.

Chelsea's Carney, 31, received the messages on Instagram after Wednesday's Champions League win over Fiorentina.

The user has been removed from Instagram, with the FA saying it is "appalled" and "dismayed", but Carney will not be reporting it to police.

England boss Phil Neville described the messages as "absolutely disgraceful".

Chelsea said they were "abhorrent and totally unacceptable".

The posts began: "How many chances you need to score in second half bitches" before making rape and death threats.

It is understood the user is not known to Carney, who wrote "wow, some people..." in response to the messages.

"The FA takes such matters extremely seriously," said an FA statement. "The abuse of players on social networking sites is a serious concern and we call on the police and social media organisations to do everything they can to help tackle this growing problem.

"We provide all our senior England players with training, guidance and support on the use of social media and treat our duty of care in this regard with the utmost importance."

Carney has won 133 England caps since making her international debut in 2005.

A spokesperson for Instagram told BBC Sport: "We do not tolerate threatening or abusive behaviour, and the account that sent these messages has been removed from Instagram.

"We encourage anyone who sees content of this kind to report it via our in-app tools and our global team work 24/7 to review and remove anything that violates our Community Guidelines."

The Metropolitan Police said it "takes allegations of threatening and abusive behaviour very seriously" and encourages any victims of such crimes to contact police so an investigation can be carried out.

Later on Thursday, snooker player Mark King posted a death threat he had received via Facebook.

The messages to King, after he lost 4-2 to Ryan Day in the third round of the English Open, included: "Stupid fixer die."

Fellow player Barry Hawkins, who has also received abuse from online trolls, called the posts "pathetic".