THE woman who subjected child abuse campaigner Shy Keenan to a barrage of online abuse has avoided a prison sentence.

Penny Mellor bombarded Colchester-based Ms Keenan with hundreds of offensive tweets and emails, calling the campaigner a liar and an exaggerator after reading the campaigner’s autobiography, Broken.

Mellor, 53, even tweeted Ms Keenan was responsible for Ms Keenan’s son Ayden’s death, after he killed himself in 2013, having suffered from bullying.

Mellor, who runs organisation Dare to Care, was last month found guilty of stalking.

Judge David Turner yesterday ordered Mellor to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

He said at Chelmsford Crown Court: “You, too, are a campaigner and had taken a particular view of Ms Keenan, her work and integrity and, principally, her autobiography Broken.

It was a relentless barrage of tweets and emails directed at her or sent in such a manner that she would see or would have heard of them.”

The judge added Mellor had also ignored a “fair warning” by police about her behaviour having been “bordering on criminal”.

But although she did stop for some time, the stalking re-started.

The judge added: “You allowed your self-belief and your own take on things to overshadow your judgment and personal restraint.”

He also said there was an “ugly element of persistence”

and added: “It was an unhappy and shameful chapter, which must come to an end.”

Ms Keenan was not present at court, but did send a statement to be read out.

It said it was “impossible to explain” the impact the stalking had on Ms Keenan and her family, as well as her private and professional life and her physical well-being.

Ms Keenan added: “I am not the same person I was. I now need expensive, round- the-clock care which costs thousands of pounds I do not have.

The conviction affords me some form of vindication.”

Ms Keenan also said the victim services she ran at Phoenix Survivors had been forced to close as a result of the costs.

Speaking in court, mum-oftwo Mellor, of Wolverhampton, confirmed she intended to appeal against the conviction, but said: “I am quite happy to walk away from this. I have had enough of it all.”

A restraining order is already in place, which means Mellor cannot contact Ms Keenan.

It will run for five years.

Mellor was also ordered to pay £2,000 in costs within two months. No compensation was ordered.