A North Ayrshire singing star has hit out after vile internet abuse was sent to him on Christmas Eve.

Much-loved entertainer Murray Gee Mac, 46, blasted the trolls after a social media account used his Brucie the Bear character – which had been created to raise funds for charity in memory of his sister-in-law Debbie – in various crude tasteless posts seen by the Times.

The cruise ship crooner and singer of My Scottish Home, which he filmed in Ardrossan, only became aware of the posts contained in a private group when a message from the account was sent to his own Brucie the Bear page.

He posted screenshots of the posts and shared on his Facebook – with the vile content including an indecent images of a bear with a sheep.

He told the Times the page has since cleaned up its act after his actions but he was particularly upset to see another resident he knew from the area involved in commenting on the the posts – which he said were created by other individuals from the Three Towns and Irvine.

He said: “They set up this page called ‘Mac Bear’, it’s a private page and there’s only five of them on it but I know who they are.

“They [who created the page] are blocked by me, but on Christmas day they wrote a message to my Brucie the Bear page – that’s how I had spotted it then all this came up.

“I took screenshots off the posts and put it up on my Facebook page to name and shame them – the next day they went on and cleaned it all up.

“I’m not allowing that – to get attacked on Christmas Eve.

"People think they can get away with this but I don’t think they should, the bullying has to stop.

“I didn’t think this bullying was as bad as the state it is, you get young people taking their lives, it’s a terrible, terrible thing.

“It’s got to be brought to an end. They’ve stripped their page but I’ve still got all the originals.

"I would never usually have done something like that but sometimes you have to.”

He added: “I’ve never come up against anything like this.

"This is what’s most upset me, as they’ll know all the care that I do for my mother and father and them having to hear and see this.”