Professor Robert Winston sparked a privacy row this morning after posting a series of pictures of a woman having a ‘banal’ chat on her phone in a busy train carriage.
But he was forced to delete the images after less than an hour after being accused of being an ‘internet bully’ by some of his followers.
Over the course of an hour the doctor and television presenter became infuriated with the woman’s long phone call and tweeted images of her to his 40,000 followers on Twitter with a series of withering captions.
The fertility expert, who was travelling on a Virgin West Coast train, posted a picture of the blonde mother with the caption:’This woman has been on this phone call for 30 minutes in a crowded carriage. We are not interested in her conversation.’
Professor Robert Winston has been slammed for posting a series of pictures of a woman having a ‘banal’ chat on her phone in a busy train carriage. MailOnline chose to blur the pictures of the woman for privacy reasons
The doctor and television presenter posted pictures of the blonde woman on Twitter this morning with the caption: ‘This woman has been on this phone call for 30 minutes in a crowded carriage. We are not interested in her conversation’
Shortly after this he posted another three pictures, adding: ‘She’s now been on phone 40 minutes and having worn out one ear is now using the other one.’ before adding: ‘After 50 miunutes she’s bored with the whole conversation. And so are we equally bored.’
The last picture he posted had the caption: ‘It’s now 60 minutes – she has a child with her. Why not talk to her child?’
When one of his followers pointed out that there could be a reason she was on the phone for so long, the scientist and politician replied: ‘May be you are right Jenny but she is in a public place and we can hear every word of one side of what seems an entirely banal chat.’
But his followers remained unimpressed with his actions.
One wrote: ‘There are a few other people who agree with Jenny here. Annoying the lady may be (and you could tweet away about it all day if you liked) but I don’t think it is nice to tweet her picture.’
When one of his followers pointed out that there could be a reason she was on the phone for so long, and it was unfair to post four pictures of her to his 40,000 followers, the scientist and politician replied: ‘May be you are right Jenny but she is in a public place and we can hear every word of one side of what seems an entirely banal chat’
Following a backlash which saw followers accuse him of being an internet bully, the professor deleted the pictures
A Twitter user said: ‘Very uncomfortable with people being photographed like this. I know she’s invading your privacy but you have 40k followers. It’s not proportionate.’
Another said: ‘May I gently suggest that you treat this as an opportunity to tolerate minor inconveniences? Yes, utter tedium, but being able to cope with tedium is a useful skill….’
After being accused by one follower of being an ‘internet bully’, Professor Winston deleted the pictures but said: ‘Whatever I’m contrite – I’ve deleted the tweets but still rather feel that invasion of privacy can be a two way invasion.’
MailOnline has contacted a representative for Professor Winston for comment.
