Tina Malone has urged fans not to pay her £10,000 legal fees after she admitted breaching a worldwide ban on revealing the identity of James Bulger killer Jon Venables.
The 56-year-old was handed an eight-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay £10,000 for sharing a picture of what she thought was Venables in February 2018.
Following her appearance on This Morning earlier this week, a crowdfunding page to solicit donations that would help Tina pay off her costs after she cried about work opportunities drying up amid her mental breakdown in December 2017.
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The donation page says: "For those who have watched This morning today would of seen the interview with Tina Malone.
"She is heartbroken at being giving an massive 10,000 fine and a suspended sentence over sharing a picture of a child killer.
"1000 of people shared it but because she is a celebrity she has had to endure a horrid 2 years. Why does a child killer get to live with anonymity and who re offends but she has her life destroyed. So please share and donate.. Lets help her."
She responded on Twitter, saying she would rather the money go to the James Bulger Memorial Trust, of which she used to be an ambassador.
She said: "Instead of go fund me pages for my debt plse donate to the james bulger memorial trust thankyou x
"Thanks but id prefer it if you would giv or donate any money raised on my behalf to the james bulger memorial trust."
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In floods of tears and with her nose streaming, the actress sobbed on live TV as she told presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield she could no longer afford to take her daughter, Flame, to EuroDisney.
She told Holly and Phil: "I only went on Facebook a couple of years ago, because I am not really good with social media.
"I just happened to believe anything that is on the internet is legal, but it isn't."
Questioning her, Phil asked: "Do you watch the news? Because this is an issue that is discussed all the time."
Tina said: "Of course, I am not that daft, I just didn't realise what I was doing was illegal, I didn't mean to incite any violence and the repercussions on my life have been devastating.
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"I had a breakdown in January [2018], I was on heavy antidepressants, and that is not an excuse. I have just done my first acting job in 10 years and Mark Manley [Malone's solicitor] got me through it."
Tina said she didn't know she had broken the law until a journalist rang and it went in the papers.
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The Shameless star said: "I truly didn't know what I was doing. I took it off immediately. I thought I was gonna lose my job.
"I still have to pay the £10,000 fine, so we can't go EuroDisney. It is all my fault."
Throughout the interview, Tina insisted that she had no idea what she was doing was illegal: "There is a lesson to be learnt, I only ever went on because someone was pretending to be me.
"I have never, on my father's grave, sent an email. I truly don't know what that is. I am a technophobe.
"It has destroyed me. I am a survivor, I'm a Scouser."
Phil attempted to alleviate her distress: "What you are proving is that it is just so easy to fall in that trap."
He also read out a statement from Facebook who said they have a set of community standards that work within the countries' laws and as soon as they become aware of content that breaches that, they remove it.
Last week, Tina admitted breaching a worldwide ban on publishing anything that purportedly reveals the new identity of Venables.
Malone was handed an eight-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay £10,000 towards the costs of the case.
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Speaking after the ruling, her solicitor Mark Manley said: "She's naturally very happy that this matter is now concluded and that she is able to go home to her family this evening.
"She's obviously very sorry to have found herself in this position."
