Women's rugby star Kat Merchant hits out at online trolls

Kat Merchant who has played for the England rugby team said she had been abused online by trolls

A former England rugby union player said she refuses to "give in to bullies" after she received anonymous hate messages and a video online.

Kat Merchant, 35, was "horrified" to be sent a video of a man pretending to retch over her muscles describing her as "disgusting".

The World Cup 2014 winner, who lives in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, also regularly receives critical comments saying "women shouldn't lift".

She said the abuse made her "anxious".

Merchant had put up a video of herself on social media doing bicep curls when she received the video of an anonymous man retching.

"I just felt really gutted. I was just putting out videos to help people," said Merchant.

"It made me anxious for more than a couple of days and it did affect me more than I would have liked it to."

Kat Merchant was sent an abusive video by a man after she posted one of herself doing bicep curls

Merchant, who played at club level for Worcester, is now a personal trainer, said she considered removing her presence from social media but decided against it.

Instead she responded with another bicep video and another one saying she refuses to be bullied.

"Haters are gonna hate, just carry on. Don't give them your power," she said.

Kat Merchant during the IRB Women's Rugby World Cup match between England and Ireland in 2014

Merchant, who has also received critical comments about her nose decided to repost one such message with a comment, forcing the sender to remove it.

"I got lots of support from people online. I got hundreds of great comments 'love your physique, keep up the good work'," she said.

She is calling for social media platforms to do more to police this type of abuse.

"I just think we need people to have more responsibility," she said.

"You can still say whatever you like but you need to be accountable for what you're saying."

Facebook said it was committed to tackling online abuse on its platforms.

Meanwhile, Twitter is launching a feature that it hopes will help crack down on abuse and trolling.

Last month TikTok said it has introduced features for users to choose who can comment on their video and filter out certain words in their comments.

Merchant retired from rugby, aged 28, on medical advice related to the long-term effects of concussion after England won the World Cup in 2014.