Pike River families targeted by online trolls

Sonya Rockhouse and Anna Osborne, who both lost family members in the Pike River Mining disaster.

Pike River Mine families and some of their supporters have been trolled online, with one supporter's details posted on a gay dating website.

Some of the families run several Facebook pages, but two followers have been accusing everyone from the families' lawyer to West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor and even the mayor of a conspiracy theory. Even police have been accused of causing the second explosion at the mine.

Page administrator Graeme Axford said he was put on a gay dating site.

Two North Island women are now blocked from the Facebook pages.

Pike River widow Anna Osborne issued a statement about the "very unhelpful comments" and said the police had been contacted.

"Sadly, this has escalated to the extent that some extremely hurtful untruths regarding the integrity of myself, Sonya [Rockhouse], and others have been circulating. Our legal team, who are acting pro bono, are also coming in for attack," Osborne said.

The families were seeking legal advice regarding the accusations.

"We have been accused of misleading the public and misappropriating funds. We are saddened that these two women are trying to cause harm to our fight for justice and to bring our dearly loved men home."

Osborne said the families would be releasing more footage to the media in the coming weeks to help progress their efforts to search the drift leading into the mine.

The project team working on the unmanned re-entry - possibly with a drone - will meet late this week to review the information so far.

Solid Energy said they were collecting data on the possibility to allow the project team to assess options to meet the objectives.

"These objectives relate to exploring the drift for any bodies and in the drift and mine for information that may provide insight into the cause of the initial explosion or for general mine safety," the company said.

"Until we have obtained and considered the information we are not in a position to provide timeframes."

- Greymouth Star