
BROADCASTER George Hook received an anonymous letter wishing he had been seriously hurt in a car accident last week, he revealed.
The rugby pundit was involved in a minor accident last week when the taxi he was travelling in collided with another car.
The disturbing message was posted to the 74-year-old’s home address, where his wife Ingrid read it first.
The postcard read: ‘Too bad your head wasn’t between the bumpers it might have improved your brain and cured your slurring and dropped words.
“Stay in bed you freak. You are a disgrace to broadcasting, a complete babbling imbecile. Stay at home and play with your soldiers.”
Ingrid read this before I saw it. It was posted to my home address by an anonymous coward. pic.twitter.com/BVqxWioBpq
— George Hook (@ghook) November 23, 2015
Speaking on his Newstalk programme yesterday evening, he said: "Ingrid collected it first and saw the postcard and I must say it upset her. Then she gave it to me, and it upset me.
“No matter how strong you think you are, when you get hate mail it affects you. It mightn’t affect me like it would affect others, but it still affects me. I really was upset.”
He suggested that the letter could have been sent in response to an article he wrote for last weekend's Sunday Independent on the refugee crisis.
No matter how mentally strong I think I am, hate mail like this gets to me. pic.twitter.com/w3XjZcVpjW
— George Hook (@ghook) November 23, 2015
However taking to his Twitter account, he said he would not allow such hate mail stop him.
“I will not allow letters of hate deter me from broadcasting,” he wrote.