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A primary school teacher who received death threats after being falsely accused on Twitter of daubing racist graffiti on the wall of a London bar today said his life had been “ripped apart”.

Thomas Turnham was left fearing for his life after being wrongly linked to a racial insult spray-painted on to a jazz bar near his south London home. Staff at the bar contacted police after spotting the words “No n*****s” daubed on a wall near its forecourt.

News of the shocking incident spread quickly on social media, with some users falsely naming Mr Turnham, a teacher at Dulwich Hamlet Junior School, as the racist vandal.

Mr Turnham first realised he was being targeted when he received a tweet accusing him of being responsible for the graffiti attack on Dee Dee’s bar in Herne Hill. That was followed by an avalanche of abusive tweets from around the globe.

One of the messages he received read: “You are a disgusting racist we found you RIP ...” and the online abuser tagged a picture of his flat.

But Mr Turnham, who lives above the bar, vehemently denied the allegations and has been cleared of any wrongdoing by police.

Today he called for more action from Twitter and the police to stop the trolls who wrongly named him.

He said: “This all started when I received a tweet. People need to understand how damaging even a retweet can be. There needs to be a change in the law and Twitter also needs to act against these bullies.

“My life has been ripped apart by this accusation. I was frightened to go back to my flat because I feared for my life. I felt like everyone was watching me on the street thinking I was a racist. I knew I hadn’t done it but the community which I love was thinking that. I was hanging my head and not making eye contact with people. It was a horrible experience.”

The teacher, 32, is head of year five at the school rated “outstanding” by Ofsted. He said he had no idea who had sprayed the offensive message last Monday morning or why his name was being smeared.

Mr Turnham is among a number of neighbours to have written to the local council asking for the bar’s licence to be reviewed over noise complaints. A hearing is scheduled for July 1.

He said that he had been bombarded by hundreds of abusive and threatening messages on Twitter and Facebook from around the world. There was even an online petition calling for him to be sacked as a teacher.

He said: “When I saw the first message my stomach churned and then they just kept coming. I knew and everybody who knows me knew I had not done it because I was not even in London.

“I felt so powerless to stop it. People get on the computer and write this sort of destructive stuff without thinking. There have to be repercussions. Parents at the school I work at were supportive but I felt I was losing my standing in the community.”

He is taking legal advice from his teaching union, the BCSA, and has reported his online accusers to police.

Ted Purcell, general secretary of the BCSA said: “Social media used in a harmful and malicious way can actually ruin people’s careers. We will support our member in taking any legal action against those who falsely claimed he was involved.”

The bar’s owner, Brook Anderson, 60, said CCTV footage showed the incident taking place in the early hours of the morning. He said: “I’m literally lost for words. It’s disgusting. I don’t know what the purpose of it was. I don’t know why they had to daub that on the front of the bar. I’m shocked.”

The headteacher at Mr Turnham’s school, Sonia Case, issued a statement saying the teacher was “principled, kind and caring”.

A police statement said: “Police were alerted to a name being circulated on social media in relation to the graffiti. Officers spoke with the man named and established that he was not in London at the time of the incident. He is not a suspect in the investigation.”