Police investigate death threats against air hostess

Mandy Smith was forced to call the police after her memoir CabinFever: The Sizzling Secrets of a Virgin Air Hostess provoked a series of online attacks.

Internet trolls used pictures of Mandy, her daughter and husband on a Facebook group full of offensive comments - including death threats.

Mandy, 42, said: "It was pretty scary. One man wrote he was going to hunt me down and kill me.

"I don't understand what people's problem is.

"The things people were saying were disgusting.

"They were asking how many STDs I have. One girl blamed me for her divorce. She claimed that her husband had become excessively paranoid after seeing stories about sex and parties from the book.

"It has really tarnished my whole experience of writing the book."

She added: "They were making really derogatory comments about my daughter. That was the worst thing. I was so incensed by that I went to the police.

Mandy's book, released last year, lifted the lid on the ten years she worked with Virgin Atlantic.

The characters in the book are all based on her real friends - who picked their own pseudonyms. Despite the sauciness of some of the tales, even Mandy's mother loves the book, but not everyone has proved quite such a fan.

She added: "For some reason this has rubbed up a lot of people the wrong way. I’ve had a lot of online abuse from people saying things like 'your poor husband’ or ‘what must your family think of you?’

"The police were fantastic and they had a whole team dedicated to cyber-bullying.

"I told the police I didn't want any charges pressed because I just wanted to try and forget about the whole thing."

Former air hostess Mandy Smith

However, with her book now set to be released in America, the online abuse has started up again.

With her second book set to come out next year, she is now bracing herself for a fresh batch of abuse.

A spokesman for Sussex Police confirmed they had looked into the matter before being told by the victim not to take it further.