She says the figure for the social networking site may help her determine an appropriate punishment for Lee Glen, 16, who posted "grossly offensive" remarks about the STV presenter.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard how the former pupil of Trinity High School in Renfrew, had posted various offensive comments. The court was told that when Mr Batty accessed his Twitter account, he had been shocked by them.

Depute fiscal Margaret McCallum told the court: "He [Glen] conceded that he had put words on the site which would insinuate he was homosexual."

When asked why he had behaved that way, Glen said he had been in a bad mood and had taken it out on Mr Batty.

In court, Glen, formerly of Low Parksail, Erskine, admitted posting a social networking message on Twitter that was grossly offensive, indecent or menacing in nature, by making homophobic, obscene and abusive remarks.

Charlie McCusker, defending, said: "He is very remorseful and wishes it to be known that he is not homophobic. He is willing to write a letter of apology to Mr Batty."

Sheriff Sinclair said: "I would like to find out how widely that message would be seen – whether it would be 100 – might even have been a million, for all I know."

Sentence was deferred.

l Mr Batty has 49,778 followers on Twitter.