Penny Mellor guilty of stalking campaigner Shy Keenan
A woman has been found guilty of stalking an anti-child abuse campaigner by "bombarding" her with hundreds of abusive messages on Twitter.
Shy Keenan, who founded The Phoenix Chief Advocates Consultancy, received 415 tweets between October 2012 and March 2013.
Penelope Mellor, 52, of Coven Mill Close, Coven, Wolverhampton, was convicted of aggravated stalking at Chelmsford Crown Court.
She is due to be sentenced in April.
The prosecution said Mellor also sent material to Ms Keenan's associates and posted material online "which was considered unacceptable as criticism and personal in nature".
Simon Newell, senior prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said Mellor sent publicly-visible comments which were "insulting and abusive" to Ms Keenan's Twitter account.
She also emailed Ms Keenan's book publisher and literary agent, and sent messages to The Sun newspaper, for which she wrote a regular column.
"Ms Keenan was concerned private information about her family was being put into the public domain by Ms Mellor and threatening their safety, in particular, that it might be used by other people with grudges against her," he said.
Despite being warned by police about her behaviour, Mr Newell said, Mellor continued to send emails and mount attacks via Twitter.