A former local press reporter who now works as a television newsreader has insisted she will not be forced off the air by body shaming trolls.

Katie Ridley, who trained at Leeds Trinity University and spent two years working at The Hunts Post, has called out her abusers with a series of posts on the social media platform ‘X’.

Now working for ITV News Anglia, Katie was subjected to a number of hateful messages on the platform after a recent appearance reading the news on TV.

Her message on Tuesday not only named and shamed the online bullies, but also heralded a huge response of support from former colleagues and ‘X’ followers.

Former regional reporter and now ITV Anglia newsreader, Katie Ridley, has told body shaming trolls they will not force her off the TV.

Although she did not wish to comment further, Katie was happy for us to run the series of tweets, along with her responses, in the hope it will raise awareness of the issues journalists are facing with online trolling.

One man calling himself ‘Noah Nonsense’ wrote to her saying: “Fat and sour faced. Why would anybody want to look at that?”

Katie then replied saying: “Thanks for your feedback. Hope you have a lovely day! Please think twice before messaging people next time.”

The following day another poster wrote:  “Wow. They weren’t kidding, you are fat and HUGE. You aren’t a bad newsreader but maybe stick your behind the scenes work until you can lay off the pies.”

Katie then responded: “Here we go again … this is not okay. I refuse to let you bully me off TV. This is the last I am saying about this. Anyone directing hate at me I will block.”

Almost immediately there were messages of support popping up on her feed.

Cambridgshire county councillor Stephen Ferguson wrote: “No one gets to talk about the Pride of St Neots like this. You are a brilliant newsreader and a gorgeous person in every possible sense of the word.”

And one of her former journalism lecturers Jan Winter added:  “You are a great journalist and I am proud to have taught you. Please ignore the losers and haters – you are an inspiration to women journalists. And you look great and fierce! Grrrr!”