The same-sex marriage debate has well and truly arrived in Dubbo, with the Orana Local Area Command (LAC) dealing with their first incident of an online threat in relation to the issue.
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Fourteen-year-old Lily Callaghan took to Facebook last week in support of same-sex marriage, with the message “the love shared between two people is between those two people, not the church, or anyone else”.
The post received a lot of positive feedback, before a man allegedly commented with threats of violence towards Lily.
“I ain’t *** playing no more, u now what I’m capable of bitch,” the comment read.
“I am *** father. Call me b4 I come n drop bombs, it’s my time to shine because straight up.
“U want me to come with a 9,mm.”
Lily’s father Stephen Callaghan took a screen shot of the comment and posted it to Twitter under the handle Grumplestiltskin, tagging the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and thrusting Dubbo into the national spotlight.
“Hey @TurnbullMalcolm this is my 14yo daughter getting a death threat from a school friends father because she wrote a fb post supporting SSM,” he tweeted.
“This is the level of civilised debate YOU have encouraged @TurnbullMalcolm ...a parent feels emboldened enough to threaten a CHILD”
Orana LAC crime manager Jason Pietruszka confirmed police were making inquiries regarding the alleged threat.
“We take this incident very seriously and we have officers working on it now to try and resolve the situation,” Inspector Pietruszka said.
“This is the first for our command, in terms of this issue [same-sex marriage].
“Online threats are becoming more prevalent and we deal with them as they come up but this issue is a first for Orana LAC.”
Lily has received an outpouring of support on social media since the alleged threat was made.
“Thank you all who have contacted Dubbo Police,” Mr Callaghan tweeted.
“Rest assured they are taking action. I have an E Number. Lily is safe and happy with response.”
Another tweet read: “Dubbo @nswpolice are well on top of the issue with the fb post and threat against my daughter. Keeping us updated. Cannot fault them”.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s office has been contacted for comment.