The Reverend Richard Coles says police are involved after he received hate mail following the death of his partner.
The ex-Strictly Come Dancing contestant, 57, announced this week that his civil partner, the Rev David Coles, who was also a priest, died after a long illness.
The broadcaster later received messages that his partner is “in hell”.
READ MORE: Police report yet another rise in assaults on officers
Now Coles has told his Twitter followers: “Police called this evening, sympathetic and professional, and my hateful correspondence is now evidence.”
He added: “Also Northamptonshire Police lit a candle in memory of Rev David Coles at their carol service tonight. There appears to be evidence of something in my eye.”
Coles wrote that there had been “99.99999% loveliness from people and then a small but lively correspondence from Christians who wish me to know that D is in hell and I will follow.”
“It’s like the Khmer Rouge suddenly popping up in a stream of condolence.”
He said: “A letter, courageously unsigned, begins: ‘Dear Mr Coles, I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am to hear of the death of your partner…’.”
“It continues ‘I have been praying for your pain for a long time now…’.”
The Saturday Live co-presenter said that the “horrible letters: they don’t touch me”.
“I am right now an expert in pain, the real kind, and these are paper darts among the incoming, and just leave me mildly curious about the state of mind of the writer.”
Along with the tweet, he posted a picture of a pot of green ink, a reference to the journalistic term “green ink brigade” about hate mail largely being sent into news organisations written in the coloured pen.
READ MORE: Police plan fake ID crackdown at TRNSMT Festival
According to former Communards star Coles’ official website, he and David lived together in their vicarage, “which is gradually being destroyed by … dachshunds Daisy, Pongo, Audrey and Horatio”.
The couple met in 2007 after a sermon and Coles has spoken openly about their celibacy.
He previously told Christian Today: “Of course it has its challenges and sacrifices … We live in good standing with the teaching of the Church, but I wouldn’t wish that to imply that I saw that as a good and noble thing, because I don’t, but it is currently where we are.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article