TWO Simple Minds superfans who became victims of a hate campaign by the brother of the band’s singer have described their two years of torment.

John and Julie Fagan were dedicated fans of the rock band – with singer Jim Kerr even making an appearance at their wedding.

But when they posted an innocuous comment on Facebook in response to the singer’s brother Paul Kerr saying the latest album was “pure s***” they had no idea what lay ahead.

John, a 51-year-old nurse, found himself being accused of being a child rapist.

Kerr, 57, of Montague Street, Brighton went on to make lewd remarks about Julie, 52, and threatened to sexually assault her.

The couple were left terrified and mystified by the abuse.

Speaking to The Argus after Kerr was jailed for nine year on Monday, John, of Canterbury, Kent, said: “We suffered 18 months of the worst kind of abuse.

“The names he called my wife were horrendous – I can’t even bring myself to repeat them.

“I’m as happy as I can be with the sentence.

“I think it reflects that the judge took this seriously.

“But I don’t really feel that any sentence will stop him because he seems to have a total disregard for authority.

“He was released on bail several times and just carried on.

“He tried to make himself look like the victim.

“He would regularly be banned from Facebook and every time he came back online would be proudly boasting ‘I’m back’ like it was a badge of honour.

“The thing I don’t understand it why us?

“I had never met the man, he singled us out.

“He must have seen our profile picture of us with Jim (Kerr) at our wedding and it escalated from there.

“He seems to have tried to blame a lot of his actions on bipolar disorder but the psychiatric reports did not support that. It’s clear now he’s obviously bad.”

At the time when the online dispute started, Julie’s father Charles Huggan had just died.

Before she could come to terms with her grief she was faced with a barrage of abuse.

Julie added: “It was the sexually explicit comments I found the most horrendous.

“My dad died just before all this started.

“Now I have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

“I’m waiting to see if I need chemotherapy and this has been no help.

“We’re really hopeful we can draw a line under this now as it’s been a horrible couple of years.”

A restraining order will continue to ban Kerr from contacting his victims.

Detective Constable Jenny Dunn of the Brighton Investigations Team said: “All three victims were severely shaken by their experiences with Paul Kerr, who has now gone to prison.

“This shows that people who act in this offensive and distressing way online can expect to face consequences in the real world, as we will investigate bring them before the courts wherever possible and appropriate.”