Phil Neville's wife Julie hits out at Twitter trolls

Phil and Julie Neville have been repeatedly targeted by trolls on Twitter

The wife of ex-England footballer Phil Neville has hit out at Twitter trolls who have bombarded the family with abuse about their disabled daughter.

Julie Neville spoke out after Greater Manchester Police revealed complaints about online abuse had almost doubled.

Mrs Neville said one Twitter user wrote about T-shirts with the slogan "Phil Neville's daughter is a spastic".

Others had threatened to rape Mrs Neville, while her TV pundit husband had received death threats.

Greater Manchester Police has released figures that show the force received 959 complaints about crime on social media in 2014, including sexual offences, threats to kill and harassment. In 2013 the figure was 512.

Mrs Neville said the abuse directed at herself and her husband, who played for Manchester United and Everton, was "an ongoing thing".

Twenty-four forces across the UK have reported a large rise in complaints about harassment on Twitter

The abuse has included barbs directed at the couple's 11-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy.

She said: "I think the worst things are, Phil has received death threats through Twitter and I've had people threaten to rape me.

"We had one incident where two guys put on Twitter that you can buy T-shirts and the actual writing on the T-shirts was: 'Phil Neville's daughter is a spastic, she's a Cyclops and she has eight toes'.

"People feel that they have no social responsibility on Twitter. If people posted these things through our letterbox they would be done for stalking."

Nationally, 24 forces have reported a rise in crime reports mentioning Twitter, according to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Press Association.

Supt Paul Giannasi, of the National Police Chiefs' Council hate crime working group, said: "There have been a number of successful prosecutions against people posting offensive and abusive messages.

"In some cases this has led to the offender being imprisoned. There is a responsibility on police and internet providers to protect people online."