"Disgusting and very real" threats against Meghan Markle's life lead to prosecutions
The Metropolitan Police has been investigating numerous threats made against Meghan Markle, which have been described as "disgusting and very real" by the former head of counter-terrorism policing in England.
According to Neil Basu, who recently stepped down in his role of assistant commissioner after serving in the Met for 30 years, there has "absolutely" been a genuine threat to Meghan's life on multiple occasions, leading to prosecution in some cases.
"If you’d seen the stuff that was written and you were receiving it – the kind of rhetoric that’s online, if you don’t know what I know – you would feel under threat all of the time," Basu told Channel 4 News, adding: "We had teams of people investigating it."
"People have been prosecuted for those threats," Basu – who was Britain's most senior officer of colour and, at one point, in charge of royal protection – went on in his final interview as assistant commissioner.
Basu's comments come almost three years on from Meghan and Prince Harry's decision to move to the US, due to fears for their safety in the UK which began with social media trolling at the start of their relationship in 2016. Since leaving the UK, the royal couple have spoken about the abuse they received before they left – as well as how it affected their mental health – and told Oprah Winfrey last year that Meghan had personally pleaded with the Royal Family not to remove their security detail.
In one instance involving the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, that was investigated as a racist hate crime by police in 2018, the couple were sent white powder claimed to be anthrax in a malicious hoax. Just one year later, two neo-Nazis were jailed after inciting terror attacks on targets including Prince Harry, who was branded a "race traitor" in offending online material.
Speaking about the rise in such cases, Nasu said that "extreme right-wing terrorism" was the "fastest growing" threat that he dealt with. "When I started in counter-terrorism in 2015, it was about 6% of our total workload. When I left 15, 16 months ago, it was over 20% of our workload," he revealed.
And it seems the hatred towards Meghan has seeped into society, with many troll accounts using the anonymity of social media to tear her down. Last year, Cosmopolitan UK reported how one account – under the username 'Murky Meg' – posted 29,000 tweets about the Duchess, including one which questioned whether she had faked her pregnancies.
Meghan is yet to respond to Basu's comments.
Since Cosmopolitan UK's report, Murky Meg and some of the other hate accounts on Twitter targeting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been removed or suspended following an investigation.
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