As a referee sadly James Child has had to deal with more than his fair share of abuse and death threats.
Now away from the game, Child has opened up about this abuse on BBC 5 Live.
He said:
“That just goes with the territory. I’ve been and watched a couple of games live and actually there’s not an awful lot that goes on.
“A lot of it is banter, a lot is ‘get them onside ref’ and there’s not an awful lot of abuse that goes on.
“Some of the stuff you see online, I wasn’t on Twitter at the time, but I tried to keep myself away from. It doesn’t do you any good.
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“I don’t miss that part of it but I won’t overplay it, it wasn’t a massive part of it.”
He went on to speak about their death threats revealing where he had the worst record:
“I’ve had death threats as well and some of those have been investigated by the police. I think Kev is right in that it usually affects your family far more than it does yourself.
“At games I’ve managed to avoid pints being thrown at me but it’s sad really, I think as a referee you just learn to accept it.
“I didn’t have a good record at Salford, I had a pint thrown at me and then a Castleford lady ran on during a scrum and sort of tried to get to me.
“It’s sad really because you grow to expect it and when it does happen it doesn’t necessarily phase you.
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“I remember one incident where there was a touch judge at a conversion and some spectator wasn’t particularly happy with the official so he lent over and pulled his shorts down.”
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