A Twitter troll who waged a vile campaign targeting celebrities including Katie Price and her disabled son Harvey has been outed.
Josh Maddison, 28, hid behind an online account from which he posted 3,100 messages – many of them homophobic, sexist and racist.
The online bully singled out a number of stars including Gary Barlow who he mocked after the singer’s baby daughter was stillborn.
Father-of-two Maddison, from Scunthorpe, has deleted his social media accounts and when confronted by a journalist from The Sun, claimed he’s ‘grown up’ since dishing out his sick abuse.
Josh Maddison, 28, hid behind an online account from which he posted 3,100 messages – many of them homophobic, sexist and racist
Katie Price with her son Harvey (right) leaves Portcullis House in London after giving evidence to the Commons Petitions Committee where she called for online abuse to be made a specific offence. Left, their abuser – Josh Maddison
A Twitter troll who waged a vile campaign targeting celebrities including Katie Price and her disabled son Harvey (pictured) has been outed
Welsh football Gareth Bale was singled out for abuse as well as the late radio and TV presenter Terry Wogan and Apprentice host Sir Alan Sugar, who Maddison wished a fatal heart attack upon.
Jewish actress Sarah Silverman also got trolled with Maddison telling her to ‘watch out for gas chambers’, in a sick reference to the Holocaust.
Of his tweets, at least 68 were racist, 13 were sexist, 18 were homophobic and 99 abused celebrities, according to The Sun.
Harvey Price, 15, who has been subjected to countless abusive messages on social media, was the centre of Maddison’s hatred.
Responding to a tweet from the teenager’s mother Katie Price, Maddison made sick and offensive references to Harvey’s disability.
The teenager is blind and suffers from Prader-Willi syndrome, autism and ADH.
The troll made a point of tagging the former glamour model in his vitriol, meaning it was more likely she would read them.
Among his many tweets to her, which MailOnline is not publishing, he asked Price if Harvey was born during a car crash and told her to ‘go asbestos bobbing in hot chip pan oil’.
Sick Twitter troll Josh Maddison also singled out Welsh football international Gareth Bale (pictured)
The online bully singled out a number of stars including Gary Barlow (left) who he mocked after the singer’s baby daughter was stillborn. Apprentice host Sir Alan Sugar (right) was also abused by Maddison, who wished a fatal heart attack upon him
Jewish actress Sarah Silverman also got trolled with Maddison telling her to ‘watch out for gas chambers’, in a sick reference to the Holocaust
Maddison was traced to a house on the outskirts of Scunthorpe where The Sun confronted him over his vile tirade.
Having begged the paper not to expose him, he said: ‘I hope you’ll take this into consideration and that we were all young, we do silly things.
‘We all like to have a have a laugh and stuff like that. That [the Harvey abuse] is not an area I like to go.
‘I’ve grown up you know.’
His now-deleted Linkedin account listed him as a youth worker for North Lincolnshire Council in 2013.
Although it is not clear what is current job is, he spent time as a junior football coach and at a design company in Scunthorpe.