Radio presenter Dean McCullough has revealed he received 12 death threats after appearing on "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!" last year. The 33-year-old from Northern Ireland said the online abuse fundamentally changed him, prompting ITV to introduce a new rule limiting consecutive trials for campmates.
McCullough faced six trials in a row during his time in the jungle before becoming the second campmate eliminated. The experience triggered a wave of online harassment that included death threats, abusive direct messages, and violent comments.
Speaking on ITV's Lorraine on Friday morning, McCullough described the psychological toll. "The person I was flying to Australia was not the person I was coming back, because of the trolling," he said. "I had death threats and DMs and comments. My team were so worried."
The scale of abuse
The radio presenter earlier told the Daily Star Sunday the threats were severe and specific. "When I came out of the jungle, I started getting so many death threats," he said. "People tell me they wish I'd got AIDS and died or that if they see me in the street they're going to batter me. People were saying they were to come to my work at the BBC and my house. It hurt. It was really heavy stuff."
McCullough revealed that 35 accounts were identified as having malicious contact. "12 of them were aggravated malicious contact, which is basically a death threat," he said. "They're being identified." Greater Manchester Police initiated an investigation, with details passed to police forces across the UK.
New trial rules introduced
ITV has introduced a new rule for this year's series preventing campmates from facing more than two consecutive trials. McCullough welcomed the change during his Lorraine appearance.
"I'm really glad that they've introduced this rule this year," he said. "Nobody, none of us, like Barry will tell you, none of us wants to be down at the trials every day. You're out all day, it's exhausting and it's nice to spread that love amongst everybody else. So I'm hoping that nobody gets picked on."
The rule change means campmates who face two trials consecutively become ineligible for the next trial. Current contestants Aitch and Angry Ginge have each faced more than one trial this year.
Jungle vs home perception
McCullough said his fellow campmates saw a different side of him than viewers at home. "Everyone had my back in the Jungle because they experienced the real me," he told Lorraine. "The people at home saw this two dimensional person who got picked to do all the trials, so I'm glad they're introducing the rule this year."
Watching this year's campmates fly to Australia triggered sadness for McCullough. "When I saw all the campmates fly to Australia this year, it made me feel quite sad," he said.
Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
