News / News Wire
DJ reveals deaths threats after nurse suicide
One of the Australian radio DJs who organised a prank phone call to a hospital, after which a nurse from Bristol took her own life, has said she has received death threats ever since.
Mel Greig said bullets with her name, and that of her colleague Michael Christian, on them had been given to police.
She added that she had a stalker who had said he would not stop following her until she committed suicide.
is needed now More than ever
Greig and Christian made a hoax call to the London hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated for acute morning sickness. They pretended to be the Queen and Prince of Wales, inquiring after the royal.
Jacintha Saldanha, from Southmead, took the call from the presenters and put it through to a colleague believing it was genuine. Saldanha killed herself three days later.
A coroner last month said Saldanha was clearly an “extraordinary nurse” but the hoax call was “on her mind”.
Greig spoke at the inquest and told Saldanha’s family she was truly sorry for their loss.
Last night in an interview with the BBC Newsnight programme, Greig said she did not want to feel sorry for herself but the “trolling and death threats were disgusting”.
“I was in lockdown for months. There were bullets with our name on it sent to police stations,” she said.
“I’ve still got a stalker, a harasser, that has been around for 18 months who won’t stop until I take my own life, which is not going to happen.
“To me it’s quite hypocritical. They are calling me a bully, ‘look what you’ve done, you’re a horrible person’.
“Trolling needs to stop. Luckily I can handle it now, but there was a time when I could not handle it and I believed it.
“At one point someone rang my mother and said ‘eye for an eye, you deserve to die’.
“When you bring my mother into it it’s just unnecessary.”
The Sydney-based DJ said that since the event she believed others in radio had to think about not taking the risk that someone’s mental health could not handle pranks.
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
