A former soldier turned keyboard warrior has been hit with a restraining order after a terrifying hate campaign directed at a number of successful women including a leading barrister.
David Mottershead, 42, who claimed to be standing up for ‘men’s rights’ sent death threats to various successful women including Dr Charlotte Proudman, leaving her fearing for her life.
The ex-soldier posted a chilling picture of himself holding a gun, with his face smeared in camouflage paint and his finger on the trigger aiming at Dr Proudman, telling her: ‘You’ll panic as I inhale your last breath’ in a tweet addressed to her.
Mottershead, who was later found to have armed himself with a knife, posted videos across Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok last November after becoming enraged by Dr Proudman
Mottershead, from Machynlleth in Wales, who styled himself a ‘Men’s Rights Advocate’, compared the feminist Barrister to Hitler and threatened to destroy her career.
In perhaps the most chilling of his posts, the ex-army officer wrote, ‘I’ll find out your blood group so I can keep you alive long enough that you understand.’
In a TikTok Video filmed outside Aberystwyth Police Station, Mottershead repeats the line: ‘You’ll panic as I inhale your last breath’.
David Mottershead, 42, who claimed to be standing up for ‘men’s rights’ sent death threats to various successful women
Barrister Dr Charlotte Proudman was left fearing for her life by Mottershead and said she has upped her security
Another tweet sent to the Barrister said, ‘People like proudman have a naive version of what ‘revolution’ looks like. Can still smell the burning flesh tbh. They’ll only realise when the blood is running in the streets.’
He made videos encouraging people to complain about her to her regulatory body, the Bar Standards Board and the University of Cambridge, where she is a Research Associate, about her to try to get her fired.
The prosecution alleged Mottershead, by his behaviour, targeted Charlotte Proudman, using threatening language and posting images, they say, were intended to harass her and fear violence would be used against her.
The defence accepted Mottershead was responsible for the messages but did not direct them specifically at the lawyer even though she found them ‘distressing and disturbing.’
Mottershead was cleared of putting Ms Proudman in fear that violence would be used against her by his course of conduct but found guilty of carrying a knife.
Judge Rhys Rowlands ordered a restraining order to protect Dr Proudman from him in future.
Judge Rowlands said: ‘However strongly someone holds views, that doesn’t put them above the law and entitle them to issue threats of violence.’
The ex-soldiers sickening and extremist ‘Incel’ views were considered so disturbing that Mottershead was also reported to ‘Prevent’, the government-led, multi-agency programme which aims to stop individuals from becoming terrorists.
After the case Dr Proudman said: ‘I am genuinely terrified that he will seek me out, find me, and he will kill me or do something even more horrific. He’s already told me what he will do to me.
‘I’ve increased my security, and I’ve changed my pattern of behaviour. I don’t keep to the same daily routine anymore, which I used to enjoy.’
‘He wants to kill me, and he wants to make me suffer, and he’s going to enjoy it. That’s what I think he meant. That’s the level of threat he poses.
‘He claimed he was a ‘men’s rights activist’, which somehow meant he was allowed to be abusive, bullying, and threatening towards me because he disagrees with everything I stand for as a women’s rights advocate.
The ex-soldier posted a chilling picture of himself holding a gun, with his face smeared in camouflage paint and his finger on the trigger aiming at Dr Proudman
Judge Rhys Rowlands ordered a restraining order to protect Dr Proudman from Mottershead in future
Mottershead, from Machynlleth in Wales, who styled himself a ‘Men’s Rights Advocate’, compared the feminist Barrister to Hitler and threatened to destroy her career
‘But I have never behaved that way. And I have never seen another feminist make death threats.
‘So to equate our views, as if they re are of equal value, and therefore he’s entitled to abuse me in that way, I think, really shows why women don’t speak up about male violence and don’t challenge gender inequality.
‘Because not only do you suffer threats to your own life, but you’re told that the person making those threats is justified in doing it. You’re the problem; you are then victim-blamed by him.
‘I think that he will try and kill me. And I think he’ll make me suffer in a violent, deeply disturbing way, which is exactly what he’s told me he will do.
Dr Jess Taylor, a Chartered Psychologist who holds a PHD in Forensic Psychology, was also targeted by the ex-soldier.
Dr Taylor said: ‘I truly believe he’ll go on to do something really terrible. He is a really, really dangerous individual. And it’s the obsession and the fixation that makes him so dangerous. He will not stop. This has been going on for years.
‘He is obsessed with any successful, especially feminist women or women who talk about male violence.’
London’s Victims’ Commissioner, Claire Waxman, revealed she also has personal experience of the troll: ‘I have also been targeted online by this man and was advised by a Senior Met officer to report him, which unfortunately led to being targeted further
‘It is very clear that we still have a gap in legislation and understanding when it comes to tackling misogyny online and protecting women. Time will tell if the Online Safety Act has gone far enough to tackle this violence against women online.’
Mottershead, who has convictions for drug offences and breaches of the peace, calls himself a ‘Master scientist’, an ‘independent researcher’ and has self-published ‘academic papers’ which target feminist views.
One paper reveals that Mottershead is estranged from his own family.
Mottershead boasted online about the fact that he had been referred and that he expected to be sent to prison.
Mottershead claims to have been a Lance Corporal in the Royal Logistic Corps between 1999 and 2002 and to have served in Kosovo, Norway, Oman and Cyprus. And then to have served again from 2008 to 2012 as a Household Cavalry soldier.
The Ministry of Defence did not reply to a request to check his military record.