The England and Liverpool forward is expected to sign for Manchester City in a transfer worth £49m
Twitter trolls who posted abusive messages directed at the daughter of England footballer Raheem Sterling are being investigated by police.
Officers are analysing the posts, sent after it was reported the Liverpool player was on the verge of a £49m transfer to Manchester City.
One user told Sterling to hug his daughter before appearing to make threats against her.
A Merseyside Police spokesman said the language used was "abhorrent".
"We are taking the incident extremely seriously and an investigation by detectives in Liverpool CID is on-going," he said.
Another user posted further references to Sterling's daughter along with racist comments.
Many of the tweets have since been deleted.
But several concerned Twitter users took screen-grabs of the posts and urged Merseyside Police to investigate.
The force spokesman added: "People who use the internet to target others and who commit criminal offences such as harassment or hate crime are not beyond the law and can expect to be brought to justice."
- Published5 June 2015
