Papiss Cisse and Rachelle Graham
Papiss Cisse and his girlfriend Rachelle Graham, the current Miss Newcastle, have been targeted by racist trolls online.

Premier League striker Papiss Cisse and his beauty queen girlfriend have been targeted by racists who are against their inter-racial relationship.

The 27-year-old Newcastle player, originally from Senegal, is dating Rachelle Graham, the current Miss Newcastle.

Graham says the pair were subjected to vile abuse after she took part in a 13,000ft skydive to help raise money to buy an ambulance in Cisse's native Senegal. She raised £900 for the Friends of Sedhiou charity.

The 22-year-old cafe owner 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."

Her charity skydive was attacked by online trolls on a website set up to condemn those who date outside their race.

A bogus Twitter account was also set up in Graham's name, and other Newcastle players' wives started to receive racist messages. That account has now been suspended.

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

"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.

"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."