Fitness influencer who's harassed DAILY with 'disgusting photos' reveals an 'obsessive' stranger sent hundreds of messages a day and threatened to release her address to 'bad men' if she didn't send nude photos
- Elle Edwards, from London, revealed she receives hundreds of messages a day
- Fitness influencer has 800k Instagram fans after starting account at university
- Revealed one scenario got 'out of control' with a 'very obsessive' stranger
- Elle was left terrified when he said he knew where she lived and her schedule
- Threatened to release address to 'bad men' unless she sent him naked photos
- Said: 'I couldn't leave my flat. I was so terrified, I shut all my blinds'
A fitness influencer has revealed how she received hundreds of messages a day from a stranger who threatened to release her address to 'bad men' if she didn't send him nude photos.
Elle Edwards, from London, amassed 800,000 Instagram followers after setting up her account at university to track her progress in the gym - but said she receives 'really disgusting' and 'vulgar' photos and videos from strangers every day.
Speaking to the BBC, she revealed one situation got 'out of control' when a 'very obsessive' man bombarded her with messages on the app, telling her he knew where she lived and where she ran each morning.
Elle said: 'It got the point where I couldn't leave my flat. I was so terrified, I shut all my blinds...This guy said, "If you don't send me a naked photo, I will leak your address to lots of bad men".'
Elle Edwards, from London, has revealed how she received hundreds of messages a day from a stranger who threatened to release her address to 'bad men' if she didn't send him nude photos
The fitness influencer explained: 'I was always fascinated with social media growing up and had a YouTube account as a kid to post dances on and stuff like that.
At university, after my first year, I decided to get in shape so I started an account to track my progress and basically share my whole life. It basically blew up.'
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She continued: 'The world of social media is a minefield...you get a lot of strange comments as well. People say really disgusting things, like...really disgusting.
'In your comments section, you can't post pictures so they are limited to text, but in the DMS, sometimes people will send really disgusting and vulgar pictures and videos of themselves.'
The fitness influencer amassed 800k Instagram followers after setting up her account at university to track her progress in the gym - but said she receives 'really disgusting' and 'vulgar' photos and videos from strangers every day
'I would say I receive messages daily - there's literally so many and they're all different angles.
'Sometimes it's really intense, the videos will be saying my name or something like that.'
Elle continued: 'I had a scenario where something that happened online got out of control.
'This guy was very obsessive, he knew exactly where I lived, he found out my address and said he knew where I was running in the mornings and what floor I was on in my building.'
She revealed one situation got 'out of control' when a 'very obsessive' man bombarded her with messages on the app, telling her he knew where she lived and where she ran each morning
She explained: 'It was a lot. It was inescapable and intense. He made hundreds of accounts.
'I was just coping with the situation and he was messaging me hundreds of times a day.'
Elle continued: 'It got to the point where I completely crumbled and I went to the police.
'I didn't know what this person looked like, I didn't know where they were or whether they were watching me.
'For me, it's the fear that it's not just going to be a picture and then I move on.
Elle told the BBC the messages from the man came from hundreds of accounts, becoming 'intense' and 'inescapable'
'There's going to be personality behind that picture that is going to harass me. That's really common - it's really sad.'
Cyber-flashing is when a person is sent an unsolicited sexual image on their mobile device by a stranger nearby through AirDrop, a file-sharing function on iPhones.
Victims are often targeted on public transport due to the technology's short range.
There is currently no law which directly addresses 'cyber-flashing' in England and Wales, despite the act being made illegal in Scotland 12 years ago.
Police investigated the first ever case of cyber-flashing in 2015 after an unwanted graphic picture popped up on a shocked London commuter's iPhone.
After receiving the threats online, she said she 'completely crumbled' and went to the police to report the stranger
There were three cases reported in 2016 and 15 in 2017.
Figures published by the British Transport Police show there were another 35 offences recorded in the first half of 2019 compared to 34 for the whole of 2018.
The number of reported cases is also thought to be much lower than the actual number of instances, partly due to the fact that cyber-flashing is not in itself a crime.
Some cases can be investigated under current public decency laws, or the Malicious Communications Act, but there are currently no specific provisions for cyber-flashing.
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