SINGING star Cher Lloyd and the father of a Worcester schoolgirl who killed herself after falling victim to cyber bullying appeared on a programme last night highlighting the growing issue.

Cher, aged 18, from Malvern, and Andrew MacBryde, the father of Natasha MacBryde, who attended RGS Worcester, appeared on last night’s BBC Panorama programme called Hunting the Internet Bullies.

Cher, who made her name as an X Factor contestant in 2010, has been targeted by internet bullies during her meteoric rise to fame.

Many of the comments and threats directed towards Cher focus on her Romany heritage – something she has always been proud of.

Cher whose debut single Swagger Jagger topped the charts, told reporter Declan Lawn that she receives “at least” 10 tweets a day on Twitter calling her a “dirty Pikey”.

During the programme, Cher said she believes people target her because “they know it’s going to get to me or because they know they can”.

She has even received a death threat to a member of her family.

She said: “There’s been many times where I cried myself to sleep.

“I’m very scared, I’ve never ever said that because I like to think that people think I’m strong because if they don’t they might not think I can do it.

“But I am in some ways but I think some days I just wish that people would leave me alone for a little bit, I wish for there to be a hole and it to suck me in.

“I never thought that I could talk to anyone about it because I didn’t feel like I needed to.

“I thought that I’d be strong enough to get through it on my own. I think that’s the worse thing you can possibly do.”

Cher admitted she would be happier if she become well-known 10 years ago, before online social networks.

She said: “I think I would be a lot happier, I would be protected a lot more.

“A few comment to a young girl, that’s all it takes.”

Natasha MacBryde, of Warnstry Road, Bromsgrove, committed suicide on February 13 last year.

As previously reported in the Worcester News, Natasha received an anonymous message on social networking site Formspring on the day of her death.

Panorama understands that at the height of the problem, there were 30 pages of critical comments about Natasha on one social network.

Mr MacBryde told the programme: “Something had happened [on the night of her death] that she just decided enough is enough and yeah, she walked out of the house.”

The situation arose from a disagreement at school which went online.

Mr MacBryde said because the “vindictive and nasty” comments were being sent by an anonymous user, Natasha didn’t know who she could turn to.

He said: “There was obviously a bad apple amongst her friends but she didn’t know which one.”

He added that the use of anonymity played a large role in what happened to Natasha.

The programme said cases like this are still very rare but are becoming more and more common.

A Facebook tribute page set up in memory of Natasha was also targeted by “trolls”.

As previously reported in the Worcester News, Sean Duffy, aged 25, was jailed for posting cruel images on Facebook and a video on YouTube.