Metropolitan Police officers are assisting Amanda Abbington. The former Strictly Come Dancing star faced horrific messages after opening up about her experience on the dancefloor with partner Giovanni Pernice. Amid a BBC probe and her theatre show in London, the actress had been sent vile death threats on social media.
Things took a horrendous turn on Friday after an email sent to the venue where she's playing warned the star would "die on stage" if she didn't withdraw her complaint against Giovanni. Cops were called an insiders say officers are taking the ordeal "very seriously". After her opening night of When It Happens To You at Park Theatre, in Finsbury, north London, Amanda has reportedly been has interviewed by police on two occasions.
"Specialist officers have been looking at the email closely over the last 72 hours, and now believe they are close to identifying where it was sent from," a source told MailOnline. "They are liaising with another force on this now. This, in turn, they hope will go on to lead them to the person behind the threat.
Officers have told Amanda they will do all they can to find out who the person is behind the email. They are treating it as a very serious and very credible threat and want to unmask the person behind it." Amanda is determined to continue with her current theatre project despite being rocked by the daunting death threat.
Jez Bond, the artistic director of When It Happens To You, confidently conveyed that the actress wouldn't be bullied into quitting. Speaking to the Mirror , Bond said: "Amanda is determined to continue. Obviously she was shocked and upset, but she will not be intimidated into standing down from the show.
She's incredibly brave and will not be beaten." Of the email, he said: "We received an email to the theatre at around 3.30pm on Friday which, given its gravity, was immediately passed on to the senior management team.
Clear from the email's content, the writer set themselves up as a fan of Giovanni Pernice. "The sender, whilst appearing to create a false account, did not appear to disguise their IP address so we are hopeful that the police will be able to track them down. Our best guess is that it's from a female.
That in itself raises a great societal concern as to why, even for some women, the go-to is not to believe the person calling out abusive behaviour and it speaks to just how hard it is to do and how brave Amanda is." Police officers descended on the theatre last Friday afternoon, where they interviewed Sherlock star Amanda and collected data related to the threatening email in an attempt to identify the sender. Amanda, 53, left Strictly after just five episodes in October of the previous year, citing "personal reasons".
However, it wasn't long before rumours began to circulate that she had requested footage of her rehearsals, alleging that the show and professional dancer Giovanni Pernice, 33, had caused her to suffer from PTSD. Giovanni vehemently denies the claims. She has also lodged a formal complaint against Giovanni, sparking an ongoing investigation by the BBC.
Sources close to Giovanni are reportedly confident that he will be exonerated. Amanda revealed that she feels like she's been labelled Public Enemy No1. She also expressed her fear of travelling on trains due to threats of severe violence.
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