online abuse can be a criminal act
The original post I was referring to accused you of abusing Amaral and calling sceptical people mentally ill. Which is in effect name calling. You said 'report it to the police if I have abused anyone'
It seems like you are saying name calling is OK and 'abuse' is not. Abuse is not defined in the Malicious Communication Act 1988. The general term 'Abuse' is not specifically a crime in UK law.
In the Malicious Communication Act 1988 and the Communications Act 2003.
"a message which is indecent or grossly offensive;'
Any person who sends to another person—
(a)a [F1letter, electronic communication or article of any description] which conveys—
(i)a message which is indecent or grossly offensive;
(ii)a threat; or
(iii)information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender; or
(b)any [F2article or electronic communication] which is, in whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature",
If Brenda didn't send anything 'indecent or grossly offensive', ( as the police concluded) then she wasn't engaging in 'online abuse'.