Belfast-born Roland Bunce has reportedly dropped out of the ‘Next Model’ competition after suffering from cyber abuse and threats.

Bunce, a recent computer science graduate, has been the target of several Facebook campaigns regarding the modeling competition. He was named winner of the first round of the competition with approximately 66,000 first preference votes.
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The competition prize is the introduction of the winner to Storm, the modeling agency of Kate Moss. In its first stage the competition  had over 5,OOO hopefuls. The winning prize also includes several vouchers for the UK clothing chain,  Next and a cash price of £2,000.

On July 5th Bunce posted a message on Facebook. It read:  ‘Thanks to everyone who voted for me but I am now bowing out before it gets any worse”.

In this age of social networking Bunce’s situation highlights worldwide the problems with cyber bullying and how it affects people’s lives.

There has been numerous mixed opinions on Bunce’s entry and withdrawal from the competition and perhaps a helpful reminder of the phrase that ‘Beauty is skin deep’ reminded of everyone out there.