WE will not tolerate vile, abusive or bullying behaviour directed towards our staff.

There will no doubt be some who will read about Leroy McCarthy’s threat of rape towards one of our employees and recall they have seen nasty comments posted on our own Facebook page about our reporters.

Did you read it and simply move on; thinking nothing of it?

Or did you take a second to think how such behaviour can affect someone who is simply going about their job?

Perhaps you even saw McCarthy’s threat and laughed at it.

There are clearly some people out there who think reporters - and this is happening across the country, are ‘fair game’ and should be prepared to accept abuse.

But this is not acceptable behaviour - nor is it legal.

So if you find yourself considering posting an abusive comment ask yourself if you are prepared to face the consequences should it be deemed to contain a grossly offensive statement.

We recognise that mistakes are sometimes made - nobody is infallible, but if we do publish an error we hold up our hands in an adult manner and apologise.

If any reader has an issue with anything we publish they should make contact with the team and raise their concerns at news.em@newsquest.co.uk