Interactive map reveals UK areas most plagued by vile online trolls

Online has become increasingly common in the age of - but some areas in the UK have reported disturbingly high rates of offences, new data shows.

Crimes of malicious communications, including sending an email, social media post, or any message that is grossly indecent or offensive, or intended to cause distress or anxiety, can have potentially devastating consequences for those who fall victim to it.

Cases soared when the country went into lockdown during the pandemic and peaked in the year ending March 2022 with a record 289,000 offences, figures show. As life has returned to normal, the number has fallen year on year, with 275,000 offences in the year ending March 2023, and around 168,000 last year.

But only a handful of areas make up the majority of trolling cases. Crimes of malicious communications were recorded in Birmingham than anywhere else in the country with 32,000 cases. This was followed by Leeds (27,000), and Bradford (23,000).

But when compared to the size of the population, this type of offending is far more likely to be recorded in Blackpool. Over the last five years, there have been nearly 7,000 offences recorded in the seaside resort. That adds up to the equivalent of 48 crime reports for every 1,000 people living in Blackpool.

Next was Bradford (41 crime reports per 1,000 people), and then Wakefield (40) and Calderdale (39) - all areas of West Yorkshire.

You can see how it compares to where you live using our interactive map.

It comes shortly after the wife of a Tory councillor was jailed for inciting racial hatred on X, formerly , in which she suggested setting fire to a hotel housing immigrants.

Lucy Connolly, of Parkfield Avenue, Northampton, was charged in August with publishing material intending to stir up racial hatred and later pleaded guilty in September. Her now-deleted tweet, posted on July 29 - the day of the Southport murders - called for mass deportation and suggested starting a blaze at hotels housing immigrants.

The 41-year-old former childminder, who is married to West Northamptonshire Conservative Councillor Raymond Connolly, was jailed for 31 months. Passing sentence, the Recorder of Birmingham Judge Melbourne Inman KC said the Southport tragedy had been used by some to “sow division and hatred, often using social media” which had led to “a number of towns and cities being disfigured”.

Connolly is not the only social media user to be arrested and jailed over comments made on social media following the horrific murder of three children in Southport.

In the days that followed violence and disorder swept across the UK, fuelled by misinformation spread online, leading to the director of public prosecutions of England and Wales warning that there were “dedicated police officers who are scouring social media” looking for offences and offenders.