Comedian Leslie Jones, who plays Patty Tolan in the all-female Ghostbusters reboot, has spoken out after being victimised by racist abusers on social media.

The shocking campaign of racially charged slurs, many of which Leslie retweeted from her own account, saw the talented comic compared to a gorilla.

She was also, in one particularly vile tweet, blamed for causing the Aids outbreak.

However Leslie, unwilling to silently take the abuse, decided to address her attackers directly.

After retweeting many of the hateful messages into her own newsfeed, Leslie said: “It’s so sad, most of these comments sound like they are from ignorant children,” she said. “You have to hate yourself to put out that type of hate. I mean on my worst day I can’t think of this type of hate to put out.”

“I don’t know how to feel. I’m numb. Actually numb. I see the words and pics and videos. Videos y’all. Meaning people took time to spew hate,” she continued. “I use to wonder why some celebs don’t have Twitter accts now I know. You can’t be nice and communicate with fans cause people crazy.”

Ghostbusters’ Leslie Jones responds to racist abuse: “I don’t deserve this”