'Twitter troll' of Madeleine McCann's parents

[Still Waters]

A woman who was widely condemned in the media for allegedly writing abusive tweets about the parents of Madeleine McCann has been found dead.

The body of Brenda Leyland, 63, was found in a hotel room in Leicestershire on Saturday. Police are not treating her death as suspicious.

http://www.telegraph...found-dead.html

[stevewinn]

i blame SKY NEWS. who hounded the woman publicly, They loved the fact they'd found her, so much so they run the "Door Stepping" as an Exclusive and repeated the footage of their reporter confronting her every fifteen minutes for the next eight hours. trial by Television media.

[Moon Gazer]

I agree with the above post. It should have been the police knocking on her door privately, not a reporter who just wanted to sensationalise it.

[skookum]

From what I have read on some other forums there is doubt she wrote a lot of the tweets they printed in the paper. Apparently they pictured her and then took a selection of tweets from various people and printed them, minus the user names of course.

Lots are calling for an inquest and rightly so. We don't know who if anyone visited her before her death, conveniently the hotels CCTV was down for maintenance.

I would like to know who was picking up the tab for the hotel room as well. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was Sky.

[stevewinn]

From what I have read on some other forums there is doubt she wrote a lot of the tweets they printed in the paper. Apparently they pictured her and then took a selection of tweets from various people and printed them, minus the user names of course.

Lots are calling for an inquest and rightly so. We don't know who if anyone visited her before her death, conveniently the hotels CCTV was down for maintenance.

I would like to know who was picking up the tab for the hotel room as well. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was Sky.

It seems aswell, she only had 180 followers and you had to follow her to read her postings. - you can see what happened here, a Sky News reporter has been sieving through soical media looking for McCann related material and inadvertently has come across this lady. thinking they had a scoop they've built a story around it. blowing it all out of proportion. 180 followers and all private postings. none of the tweets were directed to the McCanns. they never even seen or read them.

SKY NEWS is a disgrace and released a s**t house statement. "Sky issued a statement saying: "We were saddened to hear of the death of Brenda Leyland. It would be inappropriate to speculate or comment further at this time." i hope Ofcom get involved.

[Crabby Kitten]

It all sounds really fishy.

[Junior Chubb]

Please forgive my ignorance on police statements...

But if they describe “the death is not being treated as suspicious” does this rule out suicide?

Could we be looking at a coincidental death, that may have been avoided if she was hounded out of her home, or is it just a straight forward suicide bought on by the stress of recent events?

Edited October 6, 2014 by Junior Chubb

[Border Collie]

Please forgive my ignorance on police statements...

But if they describe “the death is not being treated as suspicious” does this rule out suicide?

Could we be looking at a coincidental death, that may have been avoided if she was hounded out of her home, or is it just a straight forward suicide bought on by the stress of recent events?

It means it was either suicide or death by natural causes. Fairly clear which is more likely.

[Junior Chubb]

It means it was either suicide or death by natural causes. Fairly clear which is more likely.

Cheers BC... I was a bit embarrassed to ask that one.

Usually with a suicide it is mentioned in the articles (either in headline or first paragraph), however none of the articles I have read even mention suicide. If it is the case I would guess once the coroner confirms the cause of death the word suicide will more than likely be attached to the stories.

So at the moment its just a fairly obvious assumption.

[Junior Chubb]

It means it was either suicide or death by natural causes. Fairly clear which is more likely.

Could we add 'accident' to the list? This could leave the police no reason to investigate or suspect foul play.

Personally I am not ruling out a stress induced fatality, cardiac arrest or even a seizure. Unlikely but still options until a cause of death is made public.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Junior Chubb

[Shayde]

Sky News strikes again, making a story into a disaster. While not exactly "burrowing" the details of this woman's death, they were yesterday not doing their upmost in reporting it too much. No doubt thinking they might get sued.

Have to add that I work in the hospitality trade, and this sort of event, a suicide in a hotel is something that we really don't want to face. It has happened on shifts I've done twice, and without giving details, I have trouble with hearing a certain level of noises now that makes me very nervous. Much as I give sympathies to those who take their lives, doing it in a place like this can effect staff badly. It's not just the person and their families that are shocked, believe me.

[6.6.6]

She was a horrible individual! I had heard she had made some seriously nastey statements about the Mcann family!

Karma???

Edited October 7, 2014 by 6.6.6

[skookum]

She was a horrible individual! I had heard she had made some seriously nastey statements about the Mcann family!

Karma???

Are you sure they were her tweets?

Sky news put hers among those made by other people, they removed the user names so it looked like she made them all.

For example, the one about waterboarding was made from an entirely different user name.

Although now whoosed from search engines here is the example.

http://www.dailymail...th-threats.html

Notice only one tweet has her user name. The comment about suffering could be taken in more than one context.

She only had 180 followers, hardly a nationwide slur campaign. I get personal abuse on a Saturday night when working, some of which has been written on Twitter and Facebook. I am not going to run to the Police every time it is done.

Edited October 7, 2014 by skookum

[6.6.6]

Are you sure they were her tweets?

Sky news put hers among those made by other people, they removed the user names so it looked like she made them all.

For example, the one about waterboarding was made from an entirely different user name.

Fly with the crows, get shot with the crows!

What happened to "if you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything at all"!

[skookum]

Fly with the crows, get shot with the crows!

What happened to "if you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything at all"!

Maybe the same should go for the supporters.

***** Dom R*** · Top Commenter

She sounds like a nutcase. What an obsessive, weird woman. I bet the McCann's are glad she's been silenced.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/read-the-deleted-tweets-brenda-leyland-sent-the-mccanns#2ogcnea

[6.6.6]

Maybe the same should go for the supporters.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/read-the-deleted-tweets-brenda-leyland-sent-the-mccanns#2ogcnea

I agree,

There are haters in every walk of life

[skookum]

I have a lot more damning things on both sides of the argument. I will not post as I cannot guarantee there authenticity at this point.

Apparently she tweeted on the 29th September that she had been approached by what she described as men in suits asking her to stop. If true, who exactly were the men in suits? Of course it might just be nonsense ramblings but the timing etc is very interesting.

Other tweeters seemed to know she was getting a visit from Sky quite some time before they confronted her. Although the tweets have all been whoosed I have seen them along with identification numbers of the users. With any suicide there is an inquest and I hope they look into the circumstances which led to this.

For the record I don't agree with what she did or said, I don't however believe in trial by media.

[Crabby Kitten]

Why didn't they print the other trolls names? Why just her?

She behaved like someone who knew they were caught out.

[dr no]

The McCanns are like a protected species in Britain.the media has given then an easy ride from day one.If they had been a couple from a council estate they would've been crucified for going out and leaving their kids every night.

[Crabby Kitten]

The McCanns are like a protected species in Britain.the media has given then an easy ride from day one.If they had been a couple from a council estate they would've been crucified for going out and leaving their kids every night.

So ordinary people seek revenge on the McCanns using Twitter instead.

[stevewinn]

The McCanns are like a protected species in Britain.the media has given then an easy ride from day one.If they had been a couple from a council estate they would've been crucified for going out and leaving their kids every night.

I couldn't agree more. i often wondered if they'd have found their daughter alive and well, would they have been prosecuted for child neglect in the aftermath. As it stands they are still search for her and so the authorities don't act because they are suffering already.

[+DieChecker]

Another updated article on the subject.

http://news.yahoo.com/death-british-troll-sparks-debate-over-internet-bile-133700371.html;_ylt=AwrBEiRa9TtU40oAoEnQtDMD

Using the Twitter handle @Sweepyface the 63-year-old reportedly posted thousands of hate-filled messages about the couple.

Her name figured on an 80-page dossier compiled by members of the public cataloguing alleged abuse directed at the couple and their two other children from a long list of Internet users, which is currently being investigated by the police.

What drove the outpouring of bile about the McCanns by Leyland, a church-going mother-of-two in a sleepy English village, remains a mystery.

I went out and found a bunch of her tweets. It seems she hated them because she thought they had used their little girl's disappearance as a way to make a lot of money. Mainly because they wrote a book and had a large fund of donations. Seems to me she might have been crazy in some way. Probably needed mental health care, not to be locked up or made into a TV News villain.

[skookum]

Another updated article on the subject.

http://news.yahoo.co...TtU40oAoEnQtDMD

I went out and found a bunch of her tweets. It seems she hated them because she thought they had used their little girl's disappearance as a way to make a lot of money. Mainly because they wrote a book and had a large fund of donations. Seems to me she might have been crazy in some way. Probably needed mental health care, not to be locked up or made into a TV News villain.

Couldn't agree more. There are a group of people that are extremely angry about the Madeline fund. Most are still unaware it is not a charity, it is registered as a PLC business. It is also not very transparent with only the partial account details released each year, late on at least one occasion. Some who turned against the McCann's did so after making donations only to find out later that mortgage payment or payments had been made from the fund.

The fund is set up to look and support the family, however it is not in the greatest taste in my opinion when you start funding your house from it. Over the years it has had other controversial things happen within it, namely Kevin Halligen who was paid from it as a private investigator. From what I understand he lived the high life and did little to nothing other than stay in expensive hotels and wine and dine women. He apparently milked it for 100's thousands before being arrested for unrelated fraud and set to the USA for trial.

Other firms were the Spanish Pi firm Metodo 3 who promised to find the little girl by Christmas. They had a large sum each month and failed to live up to their claims. The company has suffered many arrests and convictions for unrelated crimes. Finally you had Oakley security, a firm that didn't really exist set up by a couple of ex-coppers. When looked into they had no money and no assets, its business address was one of the home addresses listing assets of under £1000. Claims that they advance surveillance and tracking seems unlikely with equipment they would have for under a £1000, probably a laptop and a camera or two. Interestingly the press often wrong assumed Oakley International was Oakley International Group Llc which was a very high powered outfit based in the USA. Given the similarities in the name you can see why the mistake happened, although many believe it was named that way deliberately.

There are other things like book sales that were supposed to go into the fund, unfortunately with only partial accounts published it is impossible to tell what money comes from where. They often have libel suits going which tops up the fund. I know some where puzzled when the press reported the fund was close to administration a year or so ago when it was well publicized a large sum had been paid up front for the book that was written.

In all of this I must say the McCann's legally have done nothing wrong. However when you ask the public for money I personally think you should be more sensitive to how your actions will be perceived if you don't want criticism. Asking people to stuff money in envelopes and send it to them doesn't come across as very professional or accountable. Recently a relative was on the news literally being handed fists full of money and admitted on camera the fund was currently being used for legal expenses.

[seeder]

Lets not forget the power of social media! Youngsters have killed themselves for being disliked on facebook (or bullied thru FB). For some people, social media is all they have as a social platform. Its bizarre.

Jeez that young chap who raised 5 million for stomach cancer...while he was in hospital dying of it, had praise and donations heaped on him, when he was released from hospital, 'some' twits on twitter made venomous posts about how he got miraculously better now he had raised so much money... and implied he was a fraudster.. till he died a few days later.

If I sat in the pub with a bunch of mates and discussed the McCanns, nothing would come of it. As soon as you go on social media however, your words 'can' remain to haunt you

.

Edited October 14, 2014 by seeder

[skookum]

Lets not forget the power of social media! Youngsters have killed themselves for being disliked on facebook (or bullied thru FB). For some people, social media is all they have as a social platform. Its bizarre.

Jeez that young chap who raised 5 million for stomach cancer...while he was in hospital dying of it, had praise and donations heaped on him, when he was released from hospital, 'some' twits on twitter made venomous posts about how he got miraculously better now he had raised so much money... and implied he was a fraudster.. till he died a few days later.

If I sat in the pub with a bunch of mates and discussed the McCanns, nothing would come of it. As soon as you go on social media however, your words 'can' remain to haunt you

.

I personally can not for the life of me understand why they allowed this picture to be taken, let alone be published.

I am sure we all have our own maybe very different thoughts on what message this picture sends out.

Edited October 14, 2014 by skookum