Niall Horan: One Direction star pleads for fans to stop sending him abusive messages

Niall Horan has pleaded with fans to stop sending him abusive messages because they are preventing him from sleeping.

The One Direction singer sent out a string of tweets to his 25 million followers on Tuesday evening describing the “abusive” messages he’s been receiving, many of which he says have been about his family members, including his young nephew.

Horan said the messages have been coming in a steady flow over the past fortnight which have “drowned” his phone and kept him awake at night.

Horan said even as he was tweeting the plea, the group were taunting him with messages:

One Direction, who are currently on hiatus, are known for their huge, active fan base who are particularly prominent on social media. The ‘Directioners’ often club together to get topics trending and target critics of the band. Earlier today #WeSupportNiall was trending on Twitter.

The 22-year-old reassured concerned fans that he was ok but highlighted the need to tackle harmful, online abuse.

Horan’s plea comes a couple of weeks after disturbing audio leaked online of a purported phone call between fellow band member Louis Tomlinson and a “fan”.

In the audio a woman with an American accent can be heard telling Tomlinson: “I hope your baby dies”, audibly shocked, Tomlinson replies: “Did you really just say that? Because luckily for you I’ve got you on record here so that’s going to go straight to my lawyer and we’ll find out who that is.”

The mother of Tomlinson’s baby, Briana Jungwirth, has also been hit with abuse by online trolls as well as being the centre of a bizarre conspiracy theory by some fans that their baby Freddie isn’t real.