Sick women-hating 'incels' on rise since Plymouth shootings

Just one year on, record numbers from UK search for hostile sites

- MATTHEW DRESCH and GERALDINE MCKELVIE

TWISTED misogynist "incel" sites have drawn a record audience in the year since Plymouth shooter Jake Davison gunned down seven people.

Yet a Sunday Mirror investigation has found little or no action has been taken to stem the rise of the sick sites - where hits have quadrupled despite calls to tighten legislation.

Davison 22, killed five people on August 12 last year, including his mother and a three-year-old girl, and left two others injured after latching on to the misogynistic "black pill" theory touted by incels.

Incel culture involves large online communities of young men who identify as "involuntary celibates" and who share hostile views towards women.

They believe they are unable to attract partners and develop a hatred of women - and of men they consider more successful. Our probe found disturbing posts encouraging acid attacks and identifying women as targets.

We also found UK traffic to the  biggest incel sites quadrupled in the year to March. The largest have had more than 100,000 hits from the UK.

Imran Ahmed, head of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said: "Incel extremists hate women for what they claim is a collective denial of their 'right' to have sex with them.