A CREWKERNE man has hit out after a Facebook smear campaign saw him receive more than 70 angry messages from strangers.

Gary Swain, who stood for the Labour party in Crewkerne at last year’s county council elections, was shocked when his Facebook page was bombarded with messages last week.

The public reaction came after a UKIP branch chairman, who has since stood down, took screenshots of Mr Swain’s Facebook comments and published them out of context.

Jayson Lomax-Hargreaves was the chairman of UKIP in Leigh, Greater Manchester, until he stood down on Wednesday, March 14, two days after he had published two Gary Swain comments along with a photo of his Crewkerne campaign leaflet.

The first comment from Mr Swain said: “Help for Heroes shouldn’t exist, anyway.”

Explaining the short extract, the South Somerset man said: “I feel the Government are very happy to send these young people away to lose limbs or worse yet totally ignore them when they get back.

“Help for Heroes shouldn’t need to exist as this is a charity doing the Government’s work for them.

“Government has a duty in my view to make sure that these people can return to good healthcare, a reasonable standard of living and a decent home.”

His second screenshot comment came following a debate about the abuse of young girls in Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford.

In Mr Swain’s short comment, which grew the most criticism, he said: “The Rochdale girls were permanently p***** and never at home. Parents should grow the hell up.”

He has since argued that abusers were most to blame for the crimes, but that he feels the police and girls’ parents were also partly to blame for what occurred.

Mr Swain added: “The whole thing was a cut and paste job by the chairman of UKIP in Leigh. He has now resigned but it has caused a fuss.

“(This) was designed to do nothing else but cause hatred and destroy my character.

“I don’t consider my views out of line from most people. Clearly, the perpetrators are nothing short of lowlife scum. Their crimes were vile.

“I’ve also said that the girls were failed by the police and failed by their parents.”

Jayson Lomax Hargreaves and Gary Swain first became involved in Facebook debates last year, Mr Swain said, after the Labour candidate finished ahead of a local UKIP candidate.

The Crewkerne candidate said he understands why people were enraged.

He added: “It’s understandable that they feel that way given the way it was put out. However, some just don’t want to hear from my side.

“I must say that many have searched further and have even helped me to put this all to bed.”

Care worker Mr Hargreaves stood down from his role as Leigh’s UKIP branch chairman last Wednesday, citing disillusionment with the party’s leadership.