A journalism student undertaking a work experience placement at a regional daily was ordered to leave its office after the paper’s editor discovered she had sent critical Twitter posts to its reporters.

Helen Wilkie says she was thrown out of the Liverpool Echo’s office last week by editor Maria Breslin while undertaking a two-day placement as part of her NCTJ course at the City of Liverpool College.

It came after Maria confronted Helen about whether she was responsible for a now-deleted Twitter account called The Wilk in which she had previously criticised Echo journalists.

In it she called Echo crime reporter Jonathan Humphries a “rabble rousing tool” over his coverage of Liverpool’s Roma communities in 2018, described Echo political editor Liam Thorp’s coverage of an issue in 2019 as “f***ed up”, while in a more recent piece for local website ScallyMag she described the paper as “full of sh*t.”

Helen’s departure from the Echo’s newsroom came on Monday 7 November, which was the second day of her placement and the first on which Maria was also in the office.

An account of the meeting between Maria and Helen, published by independent Liverpool title The Post. states that Maria asked her: “You don’t like us very much, do you?”

The Post reported: “According to Wilkie, the chat lasted a few minutes.  Breslin talked about the importance of the course and Wilkie made a comment about the absence of people from non-white communities on staff at the paper, claiming that Breslin replied that hiring such people was difficult because few had applied.

“Wilkie was duly told to leave. Allegedly, Breslin followed her out to the exit in front of other staff and exclaimed: ‘There’s the stairs’.”

Helen, who has admitted in a blog post to being critical of Echo journalists in the past, was subsequently called into a meeting with Sara Barnes, head of school for expressive arts and media at the college, with which the Echo has a long-standing partnership to provide work experience placements.

There, she claims she was told the Echo was now refusing to work with the college and “don’t want to continue with the partnership as long as you are part of the course.”

Helen claimed in her blog post that this amounted to “an ultimatum that unless I was expelled, they would sabotage the education of my classmates and possibly any future students”.

However, Helen is continuing with her studies amid an investigation into the issue, while Maria has denied asking for anyone to be thrown off the course.

Maria told HTFP in a statement: “The Echo remains very supportive to the COLC journalism department and I remain an industry advisor, as I have been for years. However my priority is to protect the welfare and mental health of my team.

“When several colleagues came to me, upset and worried by the prospect of someone being in the newsroom who they felt had a history of targeting them with online abuse, I, of course, had to take that seriously.

“The student did nothing to allay my concerns that her presence in the newsroom would be disruptive and upsetting for the team.

“It would never cross my mind to ask for a student to be removed from a course. My focus was entirely on my own colleagues.”

Speaking to HTFP, Helen denied engaging in online abuse, saying: “In all my exchanges with Echo journalists I am fairly criticising their work – often because their errors and omissions lead to the risk of tangible harm.”

She also continued to maintain that her place on the course had been under threat as a result of the incident.

Said Helen: “I was told by the college that Maria Breslin had said she would withdraw the partnership with the college unless I was dismissed.

City of Liverpool College has not responded to HTFP’s request for a comment, but told The Post it had a “positive, long-standing relationship with the Liverpool Echo, which provides many of our students with fantastic work experience opportunities and training”.

The college added it would be “inappropriate” to comment on issues pertaining to an individual student.