Mumsnet users accuse Tom Daley of ‘child abuse’ for becoming a father

Users of internet forum Mumsnet have attacked Tom Daley for becoming a father.

Olympic diver Tom Daley and Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black this week announced the birth of their son Robbie Ray Black-Daley.

A surrogate carried the child for the married couple, who used IVF to fertilise an egg from a donor.

Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black (Tim P. Whitby/Getty)

The surrogate has asked not to be named in media coverage, and her identity is being protected over fears of tabloid intrusion.

But users of internet parenting forum Mumsnet – which has recently faced accusations of becoming a “hotbed” of anti-transgender organising – turned their fire on Daley over the announcement.

Members of the Mumsnet women’s rights board, which is dominated by self-identified ‘radical feminist’ campaigners who lead pressure campaigns against transgender inclusivity, lashed out at Daley.

In a thread titled “The mother of Tom Daley’s child”, users vented about the couple’s parenthood and speculated about the identity of the surrogate – who was repeatedly confused with an egg donor and erroneously referred to as the “biological mother”.

One shocking message, since deleted by Mumsnet, stated: “The baby was both deprived of its mother and abandoned by its mother. That this happened was planned. I consider that to be child abuse.”