A FORMER REALITY television star has sparked outrage after a comment she made on Facebook about people with Down syndrome.
Usrula Presgrave, who was a cast member on BBC’s ‘The Call Centre’, said on her Facebook page that she believes “anyone born with Down syndrome should be put down, it’s just cruel to let them lead a pointless life of a vegetable”.
Outraged commenters under the post described it as “vile”, “sick” and “horrible”. Gina Grant of the Donegal branch of Down Syndrome Ireland told TheJournal.ie she was “fuming” when she saw it.
It’s not even about the disability she spoke of, it’s the fact that she said a person should be put down once they’re born and people were saying ‘just ignore her’ because of her ignorance.
Grant said the comment was tantamount to “talking about genocide because it’s about killing off one section of the community”.
She reported the comment to Facebook and also to police and the South Wales Evening Post reports Presgrave’s comment is now under investigation by officers in Swansea.
Grant said she was told police had received about 100 reports about the social media post. It has since been removed from Facebook but she said the was “disgusted and horrified” that it was left up for three days, despite the fact the social media site had been made aware of it.
“For that to be ignored I feel was very complacent,” she said.
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