The family of a missing Glenrothes man have hit out at internet trolls in a national television interview.
Marie Degan and Amy Bryant, the mother and sister of Allan Bryant Jr, have vowed to continue their internet campaign to trace the missing 24-year-old after being targeted by an online abuser.
Stewart McInroy, 23, was sentenced to10 months in prison on Wednesday after sending messages to the Bryant family where he claimed to have tortured and killed Allan.
Marie and Amy were on ITV’s This Morning programme, where they said that the pain caused by McInroy’s actions was incalculable.
“We will still continue with thecampaign,” said Amy.“The majority of people on the page are supportive.(Trolls) don’t understand the hurt that they have caused the family.
“They should think twice before doing anything like that.”
McInroy used a false name to send the sick messages to the Bryant family, whose Facebook page has more than 10,000followers.
The page was established to lead the hunt for Allan shortly after he went missing on November 3 last year.
He had been on a night out at Styxnightclub in Glenrothes and left at around 2am.
He has not been seen since and the largest police search in Fife’s history has failed to find any trace of him.
Speaking to presenters Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, Marie reiterated her belief that her son is dead.
“As soon as we reported him missing on the Monday morning I knew that something bad had happened.It was so out of character.”
Allan’s father, Allan Sr, has been thepublic face of much of the campaign and had originally been asked to contribute to the interview via telephone.
However, time constraints meantthat could not happen, although watching from home in Glenrothes he said thathe was delighted with the exposureAllan’s disappearance was given by This Morning.
“The Facebook page has gone up by over 400 people in one hour,” he said.
“I thought Amy and Marie conducted themselves really well I’m really proud of them. Amy helped Marie at times, you could probably tell.
“She did really well and it’s got Allan’s name out there.To an extent I’m glad that I didn’t have to go on in the end.
“I do a lot of the Facebook videos but this shows that it’s the whole family that has been affected.”