Investigation into McCann internet trolls launched by police

http://observador.pt/2014/10/06/mulher-que-ameacava-pais-de-maddie-twitter-encontrada-morta/

Found dead the woman who threatened the parents of Maddie on Twitter

Woman known on Twitter bysweepyface was found dead in a hotel, after a journalist to be confronted with accusations of virtual persecution to the parents of Maddie McCann.

A woman of 63 years, accused of persecuting the parents of Madeleine McCann on the internet, was found dead in a hotel room in Leicester, England.

The woman, identified as Brenda Leyland, but best known for sweepyface, the name she used on Twitter, was found dead this weekend, just days after being identified by a journalist from Sky News as the woman who threatened the couple McCann on the internet.

According to the British press, Brenda Leyland was confronted last week by journalist Martin Brunt, Sky News, on suspicions that it had been systematically resorting to Twitter to publish comments against Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of Maddie, who disappeared in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in May 2007 According to the Guardian, the woman will have left home after the conversation with the journalist, having been seen by neighbors for the last time on Thursday.

There seems, however, according to police who are investigating the case, no evidence of crime. The hypothesis of suicide seems the most likely.

On Wednesday, the television channel Sky News broadcast a report on the case, accusing Brenda Leyland to be one of dozens of people who have been starring in online attacks to the parents of Maddie McCann. Given the approach of the journalist Martin Brunt, the woman was initially reluctant to explain their motivations, but just ended up saying that he had "the right" to express their opinions. And when she was told that a body of evidence had come to the police, she once said "it's fair".

The woman then invited the reporter to her home and, with the cameras off, have explained that merely express her views on the Internet because it "had questions for the McCanns." Still, she said she hoped "that had not broken the law."

A neighbor of Brenda, who wanted to remain anonymous, also told local newspaper Leicester Mercury that "someone took a picture of Brenda Leyland on Thursday afternoon, and then never saw her again." Others added that they feared for her safety after apparently fled by the time the report was aired.

According to the spokesman of the Leicester police, the authorities were "calls to 13h42 to Saturday, October 4, due to the body of a woman who had been found in a hotel room in Smith Way, Grove Park". Police were on site but death "is not being treated as suspicious.", there is apparently no evidence of crime.

tigerloaf » Tue Oct 07, 2014 11:41 am
A slightly unfortunate choice of words by the son in that article.

The truth is that people do have a clue as to what his mother was like. The thousands of tweets she posted are a very significant clue.

It is rather sad now for the son and his relatives, though, that other haters (being led once again by Tony Bennett, the disgraced, convicted ex-solicitor from Harlow) are using his mother as a totem for hatred and trolling. They have determined that the kind of posting she was involved in online is perfectly acceptable and are creating monuments to the woman which celebrate those nasty posts under the pretence that they are perfectly acceptable.

Absolutely nothing else in the woman's life is of concern to them. Only the use they can now make of her in their continued and vile attacks on the McCanns.

What is the real motive for the obscene way in which Tony Bennett latches onto those who are suffering and tries to inveigle himself into investigations which are none of his business? He has spent the last decades of his life feeding off the suffering and misery of others. As he has no other obvious source of income does he simply leech off these cases for financial benefit or is it some kind of addiction? His own family suffer but he simple does not care about that.

Mon Sep 29 21:02:14 +0000 2014|#mccann Just noticed @skymartinbrunt is following me, why Martin won't you investigate some of these facts and show neutrality ?

Joana Morais - the original promoter of #McCann

Postby tigerloaf » Tue Oct 07, 2014 1:09 pm
One person who should seriously reflect on her role in recent events is Joana Morais.

This person who had virtually no Internet presence prior to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann burst on the scene as a Portuguese blogger who was annoyed by the criticisms of the Portuguese Police efforts to find the missing child, criticisms which largely have proved to be accurate.

As with these criticisms Morais has shown that she has a tendency to get things appallingly wrong. She was blindly supporting the PJ and GNR while blithely ignoring the realities of the situation which the media were reporting accurately. Her temper tantrums over the issue are legendary.

For a very long time Joana Morais was very closely (very closely indeed according to her own outburst on the subject) involved with a very shady character called Duarte Levy. Morais' judgment was clearly at fault in this instance. She invested a great deal in this person and as she later told us he turned out to be a complete fraud.

Much of Morais' output is in the role of apologist for the cop who was thrown off the McCann case and later tried to profit from his failure to find Madeleine by writing books on the subject which he published just days after leaving the police force. The same police man was throughout his period as lead investigator on the Madeleine case under investigation for his role in the beating up of a witness in another Portuguese missing child case. He was later convicted for his role in that.

But the aspect of her online activity which this woman should now be reflecting on most urgently is the role she played in the Twittersphere. It was the determination of Joana Morais to attack the parents of missing Madeleine (even though the Portuguese found no evidence of any crime by them) that brought about the use of the #McCann tag, the area of the Internet which was the main focus of the online activity of Brenda Leyland. Without the determination of Joana Morais to attack the innocent couple Kate and Gerry McCann so vociferously and others like her such as Tony Bennett, Lizzy Taylor and the rest would Brenda Leyland have become embroiled in the subject and open to exposure for her nasty tweeting?

Those leading the hate campaign are the most disgusting of all. They are deliberately enticing others into their hate campaign without any thought as to the type of person or mental state of the people they are involving. All that matters to people like Morais who not only promoted the use of the Twitter #McCann tag very strongly, but also runs a forum, administrates one of the most disgraceful FB pages and has a blog on the issue. She is a total obsessive. Would a genuinely sane person spend the bulk of their life for seven years fixated in this way on a matter which was actually none of their business? And oddly, like Tony Bennett, Morais has no other obvious source of income. Is she another one who simply leeches off this case for financial benefit or is it just a crazy addiction she has to the suffering of the parents of a missing child?

Denise Thomson ‏@Syn0nymph 4m4 minutes ago
@zante03 @RosalindaHu She didn't instigate contact! Brunty followed her and she posted about it Mon Sep 29 21:02:14 +0000 2014 #mccann

BrenR1958 » Tue Oct 07, 2014 1:33 pm

scoobydoo wrote .... I wish Brenda had just reached out to someone.

And that is my wish... I just wished she had someone to turn to and not do what she did. I am appalled at what is happening on Twitter and Facebook with regards to this woman's death.

Her son has lost his mother and if she had pets what will become of them... they have lost the owner they loved and felt safe with. This is a big mess. But as for the question, 'Will anything change now?' I am afraid to say... NO.

Not until international laws are made and people are not allowed to do what they are doing, when it comes to verbally abusing and harassing people. Lack of anonymity is one solution... with platforms and hosts of websites, being held accountable for what their members, users post. Harsh measures I know. But Pandora's box has been opened and it is going to be very hard to put a lid on things, without such draconian measures. That is the day and age we live in.

Unfortunately... everything is about MONEY... Facebook and Twitter don't care as long as the $$$$ roll in. Yes, they shut page or group down now and again, but that is it. And they only do that when the Police get involved or there is such a public outcry about a certain group.

Some might say, grow a thick skin... but you can only grow so much before what is happening to you takes it toll. Nobody knows the mentality of the person at the other end of people's words. We are each responsible for our actions and need to understand that we are accountable for those actions should we break the law.

Those people on Twitter and Facebook should leave Brenda Leyland's family in peace now.... Her poor son has lost his mother... last thing he wants or needs is to have to be reminded of what his mother did. We read about it daily children committing suicide due to bullying... but it isn't only children who are bullied. Brenda Leyland should never have had some of the tweets and threats I have read today, said to her. She did wrong and it is down to the Police to decide if she broke the law and the courts to deliver her punishment if found guilty. Members of the public and the media are not and should never be judge, jury and executioner. Let this woman rest in peace and leave this family to grief in peace.  

October 7, 2014 at 8:54 AM

Anthony Bennett said...
Well I believe Kate and Gerry McCann DID kill Madeleine McCann and further more I can prove it. I think everyone knows who I am and where you can contact me.
But yes the did kill their daughter.

(Re sweepyface) Thing is, it's not even like she was just resentful of the McCann parents.
She claimed the moral high ground by asserting that she was speaking out on behalf of a poor child who'd never received justice.
Surely nobody with such an allegedly burning, noble, passion would make such a dramatic U-turn when faced with an opportunity for public exposure?

I'm thinking that the whole "justice for a murdered child" angle was simply an excuse to spout venom and hatred about anybody who failed to live up to her expectations.

483261153641242625|Sun Jun 29 14:50:12 +0000 2014|@RothleyPillow  #mccann  Sean and Amelie, your mum thought you may have been drugged but didn't bother to get you checked

====

483234259252310016|Sun Jun 29 13:03:20 +0000 2014|#mccann  To Kate and Gerry, you will be hated by millions for the rest of your miserable, evil, conniving lives, have a nice day !

Joana Morais ‏@xklamation 11h10 hours ago
The spectacle of vultures using #sweepyface death to self promote themselves is as sickening as the one that lead to Brenda's death #McCann

Why do people troll? Professor Brian Brown of De Montfort University discusses the issue after McCann abuse and Brenda Leyland death

By DavidWOwen | Posted: October 07, 2014

Sending abusive messages to people over the internet - or ‘trolling’, as it is known - has made headlines over the past few days following reports of vitriolic abuse aimed at the parents of missing Madeleine McCann.

It was revealed last week that police are investigating people using the anonymity of the web to target the Rothley family, whose three-year-old daughter went missing in Portugal in 2007.

As reported in the Mercury, another tragic twist came on Sunday when Brenda Leyland, of Burton Overy, who is alleged to have tweeted 4,220 offensive messages to the McCanns, was found dead in a Leicestershire hotel room.

Professor Brian Brown, of De Montfort University, specialises in interpreting “human experience” across a variety of different disciplines, including education and the mass media.

The Mercury asked him why some internet users chose to troll others online.

“I think the subject of internet trolling, particularly with the extraordinary growth in the everyday use of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook is an interesting but complex one,” he said.

“There has been very little research into trolling, but a recent Canadian study, published in Personality and Individual Differences, the journal of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID), makes interesting reading.

“What they did was to survey a few thousand internet users asking them about their behaviour and interactions while online.

“It discovered that many people who troll, which they define as the practice of behaving in a ‘destructive, or disruptive manner in a social setting on the internet with no apparent instrumental purpose’ share similar characteristics.

“Many show traits of narcissism, Machiavelli-like manipulation, psychopathy, sadism and other antisocial personality disorders.

“Although these were essentially self-reporting questionnaires, the answers can be very revealing.

“It seems a lot of people who troll take great pleasure in manipulating others and have a very well developed sense of their own importance.

“But often, in reality, they are quite vulnerable individuals themselves, probably very isolated who don’t have much positive interaction with people in the real world, and who spend most of their time online.

“The cloak of anonymity afforded by the internet can be quite empowering for these people.

“Real life is difficult – finding a good job and keeping it is hard; raising a family is hard; relationships are difficult, especially romantic ones that quite often don’t go the way we would want.

“However, on the internet people can create their own identity anew, often several ones, where they can compensate for their feelings of inadequacy. And whilst they wouldn’t say boo to a goose, face-to-face, they can indulge their alternative persona online.

“The anonymity of the web means that, more often than not, they will not be exposed.

"We can see this extreme behaviour in other forums, for example, when someone enters a football stadium or wrestling arena, the rules of engagement are different, and some of the interaction between fans, and performers, can be viewed as extremely abusive.

“Similarly, with incidents where someone is threatening to commit suicide from a building or bridge and crowds gather, you sometimes hear reports of them shouting, ‘jump! jump!’, to the individual.

“Research has suggested that this is more likely if it is dark and the crowd is large.

“As far as targeting celebrities, many people feel they are fair game, as does the tabloid media.

“And when you hear of famous people shutting down their Twitter accounts, for example, after just a few days, due to abuse, those responsible realise how their cruel behaviour can have a powerful effect.

“They can make someone cry, make them upset, get them to react.

“This almost instantaneous result feeds and reinforces the antisocial behaviour and there is instant gratification.

“They say, ‘Hey, I am powerful, look what I’ve done’.”

Read more at http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/people-troll-Professor-Brian-Brown-Montfort/story-23056313-detail/story.html#AQ6SyLV8VJv0V5g2.99

An inquest into the death of Brenda Leyland, who sent abusive Tweets about the parents of Madeleine McCann, will open today.

Ms Leyland, 63, from Burton Overy, fled her home after being confronted about the online abuse by Sky News reporter Martin Brunt on Thursday.

It has emerged that she had sent more than 4,000 tweets about Kate and Gerry McCann blaming them for the disappearance of their daughter.

Ms Leyland's body was discovered at the Leicester Marriott Hotel, in Enderby, at the weekend and police confirmed it was the mother-of-two on Monday.

Leicester coroner Catherine Mason will open the inquest at midday today.

Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Inquest-death-Brenda-Leyland-open-today/story-23061084-detail/story.html#xgKgvxhAoyfayawT.99#ixzz3FXWEvlpi

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/markets/doorstepping-troll-brenda-leyland-was-justified-so-lets-not-bully-skys-martin-brunt--roy-greenslade-9781575.html

Doorstepping ‘troll’ Brenda Leyland was justified, so let’s not bully Sky’s Martin Brunt - Roy Greenslade

Published: 08 October 2014 Updated: 10:28, 08 October 2014

A Sky News journalist has been subjected to an online bashing because he doorstepped a woman accused of “trolling” the parents of Madeleine McCann.

The woman, Brenda Leyland, was later found dead.

We need to pick our way carefully through the farrago of claims, counterclaims and details to make a sensible analysis of competing grievances. First, vastly experienced Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt did nothing wrong by knocking on Leyland’s door.

Doorstepping is part of the methodology and culture of journalism, and not just in Britain. The fêted Watergate reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward did just that, as the movie All The President’s Men portrays. It is a necessary part of the verification process that underpins all responsible journalism.

The unusual aspect in the Sky News case is that it took place during a live broadcast. Although Brunt did not reveal Leyland’s identity or the location of her home, her face was, of course, seen on screen. That’s identification enough.

The case raises ethical problems because the broadcaster could not have known her mental and emotional state. It would surely have been better to have run an edited version rather than carry it live.

That said, the result would not have been very different unless Sky News’s editors had decided, given the time to debate the matter, that it would have been appropriate to pixellate her face.

It is not fair to say that Brunt had stalked or hounded Leyland, as his critics have claimed. He properly reported on Leyland’s vitriolic Twitter campaign against Kate and Gerry McCann. And she told him she was “entitled” to attack them.

Brunt in turn could argue that he was “entitled” to report on her activities. Disclosure is the point of journalism, and the facts of her tweeting are not in dispute. If people insult other people in a public forum, they must accept that they are open to public exposure, even if they use aliases.

It is, of course, fair to defend Leyland’s right to freedom of expression, but collectively, her tweets — all of which were unpalatable, and some of which I found appalling — surely amounted to a form of bullying. They are a classic example of what we mean by “trolling”.

Other people who believe in the complicity of the McCanns in the death of their missing daughter, Madeleine, have tweeted worse, arguably illegal, comments. But that’s irrelevant to the overall argument about the media’s right to reveal Leyland’s attacks. She just happened to be the first to be identified.

The digital world is all about transparency. Leyland may have thought that by hiding behind her Twitter handle, @sweepyface, she could evade responsibility and public embarrassment for her actions.

I concede that the circumstances were unfortunate, and I have a feeling that Sky News will think again about live doorstepping. It may not amount to trial by media, a knee-jerk reaction to the incident, but it does smack of unnecessary intrusiveness.

Then again, I can’t help feeling that it is a bit rich to accuse Brunt of being a bully for having revealed the existence of a genuine bully. He is a sensitive man, quite unlike the stereotypical foot-in-the-door reporter of yesteryear legend, and I am sure he is upset at her death.

Roy Greenslade is Professor of Journalism, City University London, and writes a blog for the Guardian

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Inquest-death-Twitter-troll-Brenda-Leyland-opened/story-23062156-detail/story.html

Inquest into the death of Madeleine McCann 'Twitter troll' Brenda Leyland is opened at Leicester Coroner's Court
By PA_Warzynski  |  Posted: October 08, 2014

An inquest into the death of a woman who is believed to have sent more than 4,000 abusive tweets about the parents of missing youngster Madeleine McCann has been opened at Leicester Coroner’s Court.

Brenda Katheryn Gabrielle Leyland, 63, of Burton Overy, was found dead in a hotel room in Enderby, on Saturday, October 4.

She was named on national television as an internet 'troll' two days earlier, accused of targeting Kate and Gerry McCann with vile messages on Twitter.

Following a confrontation at her home on Thursday by a Sky News reporter, Ms Leyland left her home and rented a room at the Leicester Marriott Hotel, where she was found dead a short time later.

It is not yet known who discovered her body.

Sergeant Kevin Taylor, of Braunstone police station, was the first officer at the scene and found Ms Leyland's body in the room.

Giving evidence at the inquest today, he said that her body had been taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary on Sunday and formally identified by family member Michael Leyland.

Sgt Taylor confirmed that a postmortem examination had taken place yesterday, but no cause of death had been determined and the results were not yet complete.

He also said that police inquires had not yet been concluded.

Coroner Catherine Mason asked if foul play had been involved, to which Sgt Taylor replied: “There did not appear to be. No.”

The inquest has been adjourned until December 18.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-2784499/Inquest-open-McCann-troll.html

New tests over McCann 'troll' death
By PRESS ASSOCIATION
PUBLISHED: 14:14, 8 October 2014 | UPDATED: 14:14, 8 October 2014

Police are awaiting the result of post-mortem tests carried out on the body of a housewife who was accused of directing online abuse at Madeleine McCann's parents.
An inquest at Leicester Coroner's Court was told a post-mortem examination conducted yesterday had failed to establish the cause of Brenda Leyland's death.
The body of Mrs Leyland, 63, was discovered in a Leicester hotel room last Saturday, two days after she featured in a Sky News report exposing internet "trolling" of Kate and Gerry McCann.

Opening the inquest, Leicester Coroner Catherine Mason was told there was no evidence of foul play or third party involvement in the death.
Police Sergeant Kevin Taylor told the coroner he was informed that Mrs Leyland was dead after being sent to the Marriott Hotel in Enderby.
The officer said: "At the scene I was joined by another officer and a county ambulance first responder unit.
"I was then informed by the paramedic and the other officer that there was a deceased female within the room."
Sgt Taylor added that officers were awaiting the results of additional post-mortem tests and were still undertaking inquiries into the death.
Adjourning the inquest until December 18, Mrs Mason said: "It's quite clear from the evidence before me that I am not in a position to conclude (the inquest) today.
"The cause of death is still not known and police inquiries are rightly ongoing.
"Therefore, with the sergeant still tasked to complete the police inquiries and the pathologist still to provide a cause of death, I am adjourning the inquest."
Mrs Leyland, from Burton Overy, Leicestershire, is reported to have posted thousands of messages on Twitter attacking the McCanns, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared in Portugal in 2007.
Officers from Leicestershire Police, who are not treating the death as suspicious, were alerted to the discovery of Ms Leyland's body at 1.42pm on Saturday.

  DailyMail
Wednesday, Oct 8th 2014

New tests over McCann 'troll' death

By Press Association

Published: 13:14 GMT, 8 October 2014 | Updated: 13:14 GMT, 8 October 2014

Police are awaiting the result of post-mortem tests carried out on the body of a housewife who was accused of directing online abuse at Madeleine McCann's parents.

An inquest at Leicester Coroner's Court was told a post-mortem examination conducted yesterday had failed to establish the cause of Brenda Leyland's death.

The body of Mrs Leyland, 63, was discovered in a Leicester hotel room last Saturday, two days after she featured in a Sky News report exposing internet "trolling" of Kate and Gerry McCann.

A woman accused of sending internet abuse to Gerry and Kate McCann was found dead in a hotel room

Opening the inquest, Leicester Coroner Catherine Mason was told there was no evidence of foul play or third party involvement in the death.

Police Sergeant Kevin Taylor told the coroner he was informed that Mrs Leyland was dead after being sent to the Marriott Hotel in Enderby.

The officer said: "At the scene I was joined by another officer and a county ambulance first responder unit.

"I was then informed by the paramedic and the other officer that there was a deceased female within the room."

Sgt Taylor added that officers were awaiting the results of additional post-mortem tests and were still undertaking inquiries into the death.

Adjourning the inquest until December 18, Mrs Mason said: "It's quite clear from the evidence before me that I am not in a position to conclude (the inquest) today.

"The cause of death is still not known and police inquiries are rightly ongoing.

"Therefore, with the sergeant still tasked to complete the police inquiries and the pathologist still to provide a cause of death, I am adjourning the inquest."

Mrs Leyland, from Burton Overy, Leicestershire, is reported to have posted thousands of messages on Twitter attacking the McCanns, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared in Portugal in 2007.

Officers from Leicestershire Police, who are not treating the death as suspicious, were alerted to the discovery of Ms Leyland's body at 1.42pm on Saturday.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-2784499/Inquest-open-McCann-troll.html#ixzz3FYoXiUK8
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carlymichelle
Sr. Member

Re: Brenda Leyland found dead in a hotel room.
« Reply #499 on: Today at 02:23:23 PM »
no evidence in death of brenda

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-2784499/Inquest-open-McCann-troll.html#ixzz3FYftot1G

could it be murder??

colombosstogey
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 583
Yolo

Re: Brenda Leyland found dead in a hotel room.
« Reply #430 on: Today at 06:03:31 AM »

This women was so traumatised by some of these threats she HANGED HERSELF....Brenda Leyland. HANGED HERSELF....

Sky News

Inquest Opens Into Brenda Leyland Death

Police tell the hearing there "did not appear to be foul play" involved in the 63-year-old's death.

14:05, UK, Wednesday 08 October 2014

The inquest into the death of a woman accused of directing online abuse at the McCann family has heard how the first post-mortem examination could not establish a cause of death.

Brenda Leyland was found dead at a hotel outside Leicester two days after she had featured in a Sky News report on internet "trolling" of Kate and Gerry McCann.

Further tests are now being carried out to try to work out how Ms Leyland died.

The 63-year-old, from Burton Overy, Leicestershire, had been accused of posting thousands of online messages directed at the McCanns.

Sgt Kevin Taylor, of Leicestershire Police, told the inquest he was on duty on Saturday when he received a call to go to the Marriott Hotel in Enderby, where paramedics told him there "was a deceased female within the room".

Sgt Taylor said the hotel room was immediately made secure and that his initial assessment was that there "did not appear to be foul play".

Ms Leyland was formally identified by a relative at the Leicester Royal Infirmary the following day.

Senior Coroner Catherine Mason said: "I am not in a position to conclude this today. This is because the cause of death is still not known and police inquiries are still, rightly, ongoing."

The inquest was adjourned until 18 December.

How not to be a @sweepyface online: Mallick
The death of Twitter troll Brenda Leyland shows the perils of online cruelty.
By: Heather Mallick Columnist, Published on Tue Oct 07 2014

The story of the death of a Twitter troll called @sweepyface is so fascinating and morally educational that it constitutes a modern fairytale, although not the kind you read to kids at bedtime. Unless your children were raised on the Brothers Grimm and are already aged and toughened Twitter trolls in which case, go right ahead, they’ve seen worse.

Anonymity permits people to create two faces: a cheerful public one and a secret malevolent one. This has always been true but online media have made it easy as pie. Call it a hate pie. Here’s how it was sliced and served this week.

In 2007, a British couple, Kate and Gerry McCann, both doctors, went on a vacation to Portugal and their tiny daughter Madeleine was kidnapped in the night and likely murdered, although her body has never been found. They had left a door unlocked while they dined with friends and Madeleine and her twin siblings slept. The police investigation was faulty and a possible suspect has since died.

It is hard to imagine how the McCanns’ lives could have been made worse. But they have since been hounded by weird conspiracy theorists on social media, a campaign fed by inaccurate newspaper reports that have won the McCanns libel payouts, not that it has helped. The online messages gathered and sent to Scotland Yard for investigation are astoundingly cruel. People physically stalk the McCanns, post doctored photos of them in chains and nooses, and call for them to be waterboarded. The McCanns are helpless.

@sweepyface had joined in the online malevolence, for years tweeting messages like “my hate for Kate and Gerry is justified,” “Q ‘how long must the Mccanns [sic] suffer’ answer for the rest of their miserable lives’.” Calling a McCann defender on Twitter “an old biddy with huge teeth who tells lies on social media,” she had blended in with a strange crowd.

It is generally assumed that Twitter trolls are drug-addicted or mentally disturbed men, recent court cases having revealed them as such. But @sweepyface was Brenda Leyland, 63, divorced mother of two, an unemployed but well-educated woman living in a cozy house in a pretty English village. Neighbours were astonished to hear that she had been sending such vitriol for years, obsessively posting thousands of #mccann hate messages from 7 a.m. to midnight.

After being approached by a TV reporter, Leyland went to a local hotel and suddenly died, possibly by suicide.

Britain is a foreign country — it is sometimes very foreign indeed — and it’s hard to translate social mores. But in a brief video interview, Leyland had appeared to me to be fairly hardcore, a granular sort of person. It has since been explained that she was what Brits call “middle-class” and Canadians call “rich,” meaning that she was — and crucially saw herself as — a “county” type who drove an SUV and rode horses, bridled at questions, crisply declined comment, and saw the McCanns as grubby social upstarts.

The interview was a class crash, or digital secrecy meeting wild-and-free TV journalism, or chickens coming home to a sordid roost, call it what you will. But two people talked in low tones in the street about cruelty and one of them died.

The McCann hate campaign was unusual in that it was fuelled by something more than the usual misogyny or racism. It was a shared experience, an orgy of loathing. There was something “medieval” about the entire story, the Telegraph wrote intelligently, as though the McCanns, Leyland and the reporter were serially being put in the stocks for a mass public stoning. It’s hideous to watch Leyland tell the reporter, “I’m entitled” and suddenly realize she would now herself be “McCanned.”

Leyland didn’t grasp that law against libel or urging violent attacks applied to her, just as troll defenders don’t see that the McCanns have legal rights beyond simple humanity or that the polite reporter is as horrified as anyone.

Who could have predicted that going online would make people so lonely, without loyalty to the larger group that is society while nailing themselves to a hashtag? Online, people are red in tooth and claw. We call it freedom but it’s a kind of tyranny too.

@sweepyface was a freak and yet she was so typical. You would have been happy to have a cup of tea with her in her tidy garden, but inside she was slashing away with knives out of some strange need. I do think there’s a @sweepyface in all of us but the point of this sorry tale is to recognize the creature and silence it.

Likeable, Sociable and Smart. So Why a Troll?

By The Daily Telegraph

Published: 08th October 2014 11:28 AM

Found dead after being outed as an obsessive Twitter abuser of Kate and Gerry McCann, Brenda Leyland's case confounds stereotypes, writes Elizabeth Grice

We know enough about trolls to realise that they are not a uniform bunch of internet thugs and that it is unwise to lump them together into one category of nastiness.

There are the wicked, the criminal, the drunk, the disinhibited, the sad, the obsessives. This week, the pitiful case of Brenda Leyland, who was found dead in a Leicester hotel soon after being unmasked as a remorseless online abuser of Kate and Gerry McCann, overturned even the broadest understanding of what the constituency of trolling really is.

There is an incontinent sort of viciousness that goes with attacking people from the anonymity of a Twitter account. No one in the neat village of Burton Overy, Leics, suspected that Mrs Leyland had a cruel bone in her body, let alone the sort of mindset to pursue a vitriolic campaign again the grieving parents of the missing child, Madeleine McCann.

A likeable, churchgoing woman of no obviously strong views, she seemed more interested in gardening, photography and quizzes than any solitary obsession with tweeting. She also had a passionate, innocuous leading role in the village's annual scarecrow competition.

Yet, hiding behind the alias @sweepyface, she insinuated that the McCanns were implicated in their three-year-old daughter's disappearance during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007 - a theme that had obsessed her for four years. According to the website BuzzFeed, she was sometimes posting more than 50 tweets a day, even on Christmas Eve, beginning at 7am and going on until midnight.

A common complaint was that the McCanns were trying to silence their critics. The accusations were not original but her turn of phrase was blithe and deadly. "You will be hated for the rest of your miserable, evil, conniving lives, have a nice day!"

When Mrs Leyland was confronted by Sky News about her campaign of hate last Thursday, her vituperation shrivelled like a pricked balloon. She mumbled about being entitled to say such things and said she hoped she had not broken the law. Soon after, she went to ground. Now she is dead. It looks certain that the two events are connected and that she could not live with the ignominy of being a named troll, suddenly outed, suddenly herself the target of torrents of abuse and forced to face the consequences.

Brenda Leyland, nee Shevlin, was born in Stockport, Lancs, the daughter of Colin Shevlin, a squadron leader in the RAF, and his wife, Doreen. As a girl, she had attended the Convent of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in West Sussex, and went on to study at Goldsmith's College, London University. Her marriage to Michael Leyland, a company director, ended around 2000 and he remarried in 2002. To say that Mrs Leyland, a 63-year-old divorcee with two grown-up sons, did not conform to the image of the incoherent, half-literate troller who spits poison as a reflex compensation for lack of self-esteem, is an understatement. She fitted well, if unobtrusively, into the village life of Burton Overy. She was outwardly sociable, but there was an element of loneliness and disappointment in her life that had intensified with age and the break-up of her marriage - and she had developed such an obsession with the McCanns that almost all the 4,625 tweets she sent from December 2010 were about the case, many taking issue with their supporters.

It was an industrious hidden life. Emboldened by disguise, she shared the assumption of all internet trolls that she could say anything she pleased without being held accountable. As Prof Mary Beard told The Daily Telegraph when she was campaigning last year against misogynist trolling: "Anonymity has disguised the nature of authorship. It has allowed these evanescent creatures on the web to blast off without thinking of the victims. Somehow no one in this conversation is real. They are just names." Mrs Leyland tweeted triumphantly at the height of her persecution: "You can move to France, anywhere, but social media is everywhere! Our memories are long, Maddie deserves it."

Her message seemed mild compared with some of the foul-mouthed stuff that has continued to rain down on the McCanns - but there was menace in it, too. Questioned by Sky News reporter Martin Brunt, she said she was "entitled" to tweet as she did - though her justification, without the protective cloak of anonymity, sounded far from confident. Brunt, one of the most respected television reporters in the business, was invited into Mrs Leyland's house and spent time talking to her about her concerns over the McCann case off-camera. Inevitably, he has himself now become the victim of trolling, with a Facebook page set up under the title "Sack Martin Brunt".

What he could not have known when he approached her was the personal tragedy behind Mrs Leyland's confessed obsession. She was estranged from her eldest son, Daniel, and never spoke of him. Saturday, the day when her body was found in Leicester's Marriott hotel, was Daniel's 37th birthday.

A neighbour commented: "Deep down it must have hurt that he cut his mum out of his life. Whether that made her anti the McCanns, who seemed to have a very loving, supportive and happy family, we will never know. We were friends but grew apart because she was a one-way ticket. She could be quite nasty and was very controlling.

"When Madeleine first went missing she used to go over to her home village all the time. She used to go to the local pub and the shops telling everyone what she thought about the family. It seemed very odd behaviour."

Mrs Leyland's younger son, Ben, 30, lives in Los Angeles where he works for a law firm. He posted a brief emotional tribute on Facebook saying: "I love you mum and I will miss you forever. I am love and I am light, thanks to you."

In the absence of the one person who seemed to value her, such village friendships as she had sound poor substitutes for meaningful family life. Mrs Leyland's mother died in 2004 and she had distant relations in Australia, but few in Britain, other than her estranged son. A friend described her as "lonely beyond belief."

A neighbour in Burton Overy whose son is a friend of Mrs Leyland's son, Ben, said: "I just can't understand why she would have posted those things. No one in this village can. But then, for her to take her life is even more inexplicable. She just packed her bags and took off."

Another villager suggested that the threat of being unmasked and prosecuted was overwhelming.

"She was a proud, very bright articulate and upstanding lady and the thought of a prison sentence hanging over her would have devastated her. Sadly, she couldn't live with herself."

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/404047/McCann-Twitter-troll-Brenda-Leyland-died-drug-overdose

The McCanns' troll "sweepyface" is likely to have died from a drug overdose, it was revealed today.

By Jerry Lawton / Published 8th October 2014

Police are now waiting for the result of a toxicology report into the death of mum-of-two Brenda Leyland, 63, to confirm their suspicion.

An inquest hearing heard that a post mortem examination found no other explanation for her death.

Sgt Kevin Taylor, told the inquest : "There was no evidence of foul play or third party involvement in the death.''

Brenda fled form her village home to a hotel room after being outed by Sky TV News as an online tormentor of Madeleine McCann's parents Kate and Gerry.

Sky News chiefs now face a police probe over the apparent suicide of a housewife they unmasked as the Twitter troll.

They may question Sky's veteran crime reporter Martin Brunt who uncovered her activities.

The inquest was adjourned to allow police to probe the 'relevant events' leading up to the discovery of her body on Saturday.

Brenda, from Burton Overy, Leics, had made 4,220 postings about Kate and Gerry, both 46, on her Twitter account under the name @sweepyface.

She was told she was among a number of anti-McCann trolls whose abuse was contained in a 67-page dossier under investigation by the Metropolitan Police.

Asked why she had targeted the couple she replied: "I'm entitled to do that.''

The day before her body was discovered at the Marriott Hotel in Enderby, Leics, heart specialist Gerry told the BBC trolls who posted 'vile nonsense' about his family should be prosecuted.

Divorcee Brenda's ex-husband Michael identified her body on Sunday.

None of Brenda's family or friends attended the seven-minute hearing at Leicester Town Hall.

The inquest was adjourned until December 18.

Brenda's messages accused the McCanns of neglect and a cover-up over the disappearance of their then-three-year-old daughter during a 2007 family holiday in Portugal.

The McCanns, from Rothey, Leics, have been cleared of any involvement by Met Police probing the case.

The couple have been consulted by Scotland Yard over the troll dossier but declined to comment on Brenda's death.