Cork YouTube couple victims of trolling

A Cork couple are being subjected to vicious messages after they broadcast the birth of their baby on Youtube. Jonathan and Anna Saccone-Joly have kept a daily video diary of their lives for the past two years on Youtube which included the recent birth of their first child, Emilia who was born on 11 September.

Speaking to the Cork Independent Mr Saccone-Joly said: "There was a lot of mean and horrible things said before and after Emilia's arrival. Anna looked good throughout her pregnancy and I think people were quite jealous about that. People say what they want these days and there's not a lot we can do about it. It's been going on for as long as we have been posting the videos but it got worse during the pregnancy."

Amongst the hateful messages the couple received were comments hoping the couple would suffer a miscarriage and one viewer said they hoped that the baby "would be stillborn".

"It's sad," continues Mr Saccone-Joly, "because Emilia can't defend herself. Since she was born we've been getting comments about how we are bad parents and that we aren't holding her properly and that we are horrible parents who are killing her and that type of thing and it does make you second guess yourself. We are confident as parents but when you get a lot of comments like that it's hard to ignore it."

For now though Mr Saccone-Joly says that the people behind these comments aren't going to stop him and his wife from posting their daily video blog.

"These people aren't from Cork, that much is obvious and why should we stop for them? The popularity of our videos has continued to grow and we are now working with an Irish agency because of their popularity so if we stopped then these people will have won. We don't want that."

For now the Saccone-Jolys are enjoying being parents but as Mr Saccone Joly explains, popping out for a pint of milk has becoming increasingly more difficult.

"A lot of people recognise us from the videos which is funny but when your running in to the shop quickly for a pint of milk it can be a bit awkward if I'm not looking the best, it's grand though! A lot of the kids in our park call in to us as well and Anna has a younger sister in St Angela's who is always getting bombarded by her classmates about us. It's not malicious though so we don't mind that kind of thing, it's all part of it!"