Salon boss on trolling she receives aimed at Quinn-Blakey owner

Nicky Quinn, owner of Quinn’s Hair and Beauty in Huddersfield Road, Wyke, says she has received around 50 abusive message from trolls in a case of mistaken identity.

She says she has been mistaken by some on social media who think she is Sinead Quinn, who owns Quinn Blakey Hairdressing in Oakenshaw.

Sinead has hit the headlines over the last six months for her anti-lockdown stance, which has seen her open up and incur around £17,000 worth of fines.

She has also spoken of her refusal to wear face masks or PPE and is due in court in August after flouting Covid rules.

Nicky Quinn, of Quinn's Hair and Beauty in Wyke, has hit out at trolling she's received mistaking her for Sinead Quinn, of Quinn-Blakey Hairdressing

Meanwhile, Nicky says she is now fed up at receiving abusive messages from trolls, who she dubs ‘keyboard warriors’, mainly from people opposing Sinead’s opinions on the pandemic and lockdown.

Nicky says the messages have been sent to her salon’s Facebook page since November and have come from as far afield as London, Birmingham and Hull.

Nicky also lifted the lid on the types of messages she has received. She said: “I’m really frustrated and a little bit miffed that people can’t get their facts straight.

It really annoys me. There were some nasty messages. Initially, when it started last November, we were getting 20 messages in a day

“One message said ‘I hope your family gets covid and dies’.

“I started to reply to them saying you have got the wrong salon. Only one person out of the initial 20 who messaged me apologised. Some of them called me more names.

“Some of the messages have said ‘I bet you wish you had paid your fines’ and ‘enjoy your f’ing day in court’.

“I have reported some of them to the police and reported some of them to Facebook for harassment.

“Lockdown has been hard enough for everybody.”

Sinead Quinn, of Quinn Blakey Hairdressing, pictured at her salon earlier this year

Nicky says she sees a spike in abusive messages she is sent which are aimed for Sinead whenever the latter has received media attention due to her views on lockdown.

These included at the end of January this year when Sinead threatened a ‘grand reopening’ of her salon to customers.

Sinead appeared at her salon on that day but did not open to customers and was instead met by police officers who spoke to her inside her salon.

But police later said no covid breaches had been noted by officers during their visit to the salon.

Nicky added she has no ill feeling towards Sinead and even messaged Sinead on social media to reveal what was happening, but claims her reply was dismissive.

Nicky says she had never heard of Sinead before she started to voice her views against lockdown restrictions on social media.

Nicky said: “I’m a different salon with a similar name. I did not open at all to the public the lockdowns. I only came up three times to check on my business.

“The distress this is causing is awful and I just wanted to put the record straight.

“She (Sinead Quinn) has every right to do what she wants; her views are her views. People are entitled to live their own lives.

You get peaks of these messages. You can guarantee within 24 hours of her being in the news, I will get a handful of messages

“You just don’t know how this sort of thing could affect your business long-term.”

Nicky revealed as well as receiving abusive messages from people thinking she’s Sinead, some have sent her messages supporting Sinead’s anti-lockdown stance.

Meanwhile, despite the abusive messages, Sinead also does have her supporters as an online fund she set up last year broke the £10,000 mark.