Newcastle Hub: Toon hitman Cisse and his Miss Newcastle girlfriend targeted by racists

PUBLISHED: 02:20 EST, 22 April 2013 | UPDATED: 02:51 EST, 22 April 2013

Papiss Cisse and his girlfriend have been targeted by racists who are opposed to their mixed-race relationship.

The Senegalese striker, 27, is going out with Rachelle Graham, 22, the current Miss Newcastle.

She was undertaking a 13,000ft skydive to help raise money to buy an ambulance for Senegal and the pair received abuse on a website because of it.

Abuse: Papiss Cisse and Rachelle Graham, the current Miss Newcastle, were racially abused on a website

Police are investigating the abuse as a hate crime after Rachelle's mum reported the website.

Rachelle told Sky Tyne and Wear: 'It is horrific. The website targets the pair of us because I am white and Papiss is black.

'Some of it is really threatening. I don’t understand why people would say these things, especially as Papiss is such a nice guy.

'I guess we just have to ignore it and move on.'

Rachelle managed to raise £900 for Cisse's charity, Friends of Sedhiou.

Rachelle Graham

Rachelle Graham on her skydive

Big drop: Graham pictured on her skydiving charity mission, which saw her leap from a plane at 13,000ft

Rachelle Graham

A fake Twitter account was set up in her name and that other Newcastle players' wives started to receive racist messages. That account has now been suspended.

Rachelle, a cafe owner, told The Mirror: 'At first the messages came from a US website which targets white people who are going out with black people.

'The person behind that may also have set up the fake Twitter account in my name. It was made to look as much like mine as possible, using my photos and virtually the same address.

Miss Newcastle: As well as being a beauty queen, Rachelle also owns a cafe

Vile: Cisse and Graham were abused by idiots who also set up a fake Twitter account

'The first I knew of it was when I started to get messages from friends responding to tweets I had not sent. This person was sending out abuse and saying I was no longer with Papiss, and would use racist terms.

She added: 'They put up pictures of monkeys with knives, and would change newspaper stories on him, using terms like "imported from Senegal".'

'Papiss has seen this kind of racism before, and said we should ignore it. But I think it’s not on and we have to do something to stop it.'