THE family of a man missing presumed murdered has met with Saturdays singer Frankie Bridge to discuss the horrors of online trolls.
Allan Bryant Snr posted a picture of himself alongside the star on Facebook on Monday night after she visited the family home for an upcoming television documentary.
He has campaigned tirelessly since his son, Allan Jnr, disappeared following a night at Styx nightclub in Glenrothes, Fife on Sunday November 3, 2013.
The family, who believe their son was murdered, have been targeted by sick online trolls, one of whom claimed to have “brutally tortured” and then electrocuted Allan Jnr.
Saturday’s singer, Frankie, 28, has herself had problems with online trolls and in 2015 confronted one man who had told women online that he was going to rape them.
Allan Snr shared an image of himself next to popstar Frankie on Facebook and wrote: “My family met Frankie Bridge from The Saturdays.
“We did nearly five hours of filming about trolls and how they can have a devastating effect on families like ours.
“I have never met a more down to earth woman. You can only imagine meeting people like this but when they sit in your home and talk away about life and find out they are no different from yourself, it blows my family away.”
Speaking today about the meeting, he added: “She travelled up from London and couldn’t have been nicer.
“She was so supportive and wished us the best. It was more like having an old friend visit us rather than a famous celebrity.”
In 2014, Stewart McInroy, 23, sent a series of graphic messages to the Bryants via the Facebook page ‘Find Allan Bryant Jr.’
He used a fake Facebook page to tell Allan Snr that he had taken his son hostage and killed him.
He messaged the page: “I am the killer of Allan Bryant.
“When he walked home I stopped my van, grabbed him, held him hostage until I found out he was on the news so I brutally tortured him.
“Tied to a chair, stabbed nails in him, wrapped with 240,000 volt wire and fried that f****r Allah Akbar f**k white people.”
And last year, the family once again were targeted, this time by an unknown individual who told them via Facebook that they had killed Allan Jnr and “buried him water”.
To Allan Snr they wrote: “You’re next, fat boy – you’re getting stabbed. How do you feel knowing we’ve killed your son?”
Frankie, married to former Chelsea star Wayne Bridge, herself confronted an online troll in a televised discussion in 2015.
Speaking to the troll she described her own experience and said: “These are just comments about the way I look or about my personality or something and that really hurt me when I’m feeling insecure.
“When I’m putting myself out there for people, I’m there to be a singer, I’m not there to be a perfect person and it’s really hard when people say that in comments to me.
“Do you not see that that’s just as nasty, even though it’s just on the internet?”
Allan Jnr was 23 when he went missing and was last seen staggering out of the Styx nightclub on CCTV.
He failed to completed the 10-minute walk back to the family house and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
