Investigation into McCann internet trolls launched by police

 I am glad he didn't name Sweepyface. It would play into the Anti's hands.

But the crucial point about the review is that she (Hutton) has entirely missed the point of the action of Sky News and their reporter, Martin Brunt. She says that they have highlighted the most obnoxious 1% of the McCann commentary. She says that this obscene and perverted commentary would not be tolerated on forums.

I've just managed to watch the whole thing. I listened to every word:

I think the antis really do suffer form comprehension skills; they hear what they want. Hutton missed the point (which Sweepyface illustrates) that this is not simply about the odd 'troll' who posts a threat against the McCanns or the twins. This is about an organised group of people who have systematically libelled, harassed, and incited violence against this family for nearly seven years.

I'll repeat - a sustained and relentless campaign by a core group, for nearly seven years.

That would include YOU Hutton - you are part of a sustained and deliberate campaign of harassment.

You can stick your fingers in your ears and pretend otherwise - but all that Sky News said today applies to YOU just as much as it does the nutters asking for terrorists to kill the McCanns.

Without people like you and Bennett posting day in, day out, about 'getting justice', and the 'guilt' of the McCanns, there would be no nutters asking ISIS to behead the McCanns. You are a key part in inciting violence, and of the stalking and harassment of the family of a missing child.

You can deny it all you like, but it won't make a scrap of difference.

And as the Met and CPS are looking at this, you'd think you would have the good sense to perhaps step back and think about things, instead of trying to make out you are above all this 'troll' business.

Re: Met Police received Dossier -The tImes
Post unchained melody Today at 4:57 pm

TMH wrote:
Why have they picked on just one poster (Sweepyface) ? And where did Brunt get her address from? I've seen far worse things said about the McCanns on Facebook and Twitter than what she's ever posted. And why has she been "outed" but the people who gave in the dossier have been given the courtesy of being left anonymous? Very strange

She probably agreed to be part of the story beforehand

Jayelles » Thu Oct 02, 2014 5:27 pm
Think I am missing something here:-

Shhhh! ‏@Wonderwoody1 6h6 hours ago
@xklamation Its Jayelles for sure. She was in contact with summersandswan and a lot of their "research" was from STM forum. Stitch up.

And her reasons for stating this are???? :

Is this because Pat Brown couldn't find some quotes they'd used on her own flipping blog and so she googled them and said she found them on here? Thus ASSuming that the writers had gotten them FROM here. But in their usual goonery, it passed them by that we had found those quotes on her blog just the same as the writers did.

The writers even have us the approximate date of the blog article the quotes were taken from (that Brown couldn't find) and I found them in a jiffy. Bad day when a "criminal profiler" cannot find her way around her own blog with an approximate date as a clue!

These people are seriously off their rockers at times.

Conspiraloon Central and they are usually wrong!

Tigerloaf: I have a very strong inkling (as Daphne might say) as to who was responsible for the dossier landing on the desk of Sir Bernard and other relevant parties. And that inkling points a long way away from the likely suspects who have so far cropped up in the rather hysterical (in both senses of that word) twittering today. It would, however, be invidious of me to name names.

As for the compilation of the dossier, in all honesty it would take only about a couple of hours to print off six dozen or so pages of obnoxious tweets and facebook messages. Anyone could have done that in reality. What was required was the expertise to recognise that the specific posts and tweets included were indeed potentially illegal. And again I suspect that the most obvious culprits are not necessarily the most likely. However thinking things through in the logical manner is not something the anti-McCanns are noted for.

I found it hilarious reading through the #askBrunt twittering earlier that people were demanding to know who had given him the name nd address of the supposedly 'anonymous' Sweepyface. As if Brunt and Sky News were not capapble of discovering from "public online sources" that person's real ID. Were I to challenge myself, I bet I could have discovered it while the account was live. The clues are always there in the tweets and FB posts especially in accounts being used by people of what appears to be limited nous. I think anti-McCanns who believe themselves to be 'anonymous' online had better start thinking again.

As for the dossier finding its way into the hands of Martin Brunt, wink, wink, nod, nod, crossed fingers and bent thumbs, roll up the trouser leg and fantasise as ye may!

ps Before anyone gets any ideas about me apparently knowing things (If you know what I mean?), it was stated on Sky that the dossier initially was addressed to Hogan-Howe. I merely listened carefully.

Thursday, Oct 2nd 2014 8PM  
   
Middle-class woman is unmasked as online troll who now faces arrest after sending hate messages to parents of Madeleine McCann

   
Trolls wrongly believe McCanns were involved in daughter's disappearance
They post abusive messages online directed at parents and their children
One post said: 'These two should burn in hell'.. 'I'll supply lighter - happily'
Majority of those posting messages use anonymous social media accounts
One, tweeting as @sweepyface, has been identified as Brenda Leyland, 63
She was found in the picturesque village of Burton Overy, Leicestershire
When approached over her abusive comments, she said: 'I'm entitled to'
Dossier of trolling calls on police and MPs to crack down on such vile abuse

By Stephen Wright for the Daily Mail and Harriet Arkell for MailOnline

Published: 23:06 GMT, 1 October 2014 | Updated: 17:14 GMT, 2 October 2014

This middle class woman has been unveiled as one of the trolls accused of targeting vile internet abuse at Madeleine Mccann's parents.

Scotland Yard is currently investigating the posting online of hundreds of hate messages aimed at the McCanns, whose daughter disappeared during a family holiday to Portugal in 2007.

Detectives have decided to act after being given a dossier from McCann family supporters which catalogues the abusive remarks – including death threats – aimed at the couple on Twitter, Facebook and online forums.

And Brenda Leyland, 63, who has posted dozens of messages attacking the McCanns using the Twitter handle @sweepyface, has been identified as one of them.


One of the people posting abusive messages to the McCanns has been unveiled as this woman from Burton Overy, Leicestershire

This woman, using the Twitter name @sweepyface, is one of the trolls targeting Madeleine McCann's parents

When Sky News' Martin Brunt tracked Mrs Leyland down to her house in the idyllic Leicestershire village of Burton Overy and confronted her, she remained defiant about what she had done.

When asked why she was using her Twitter account to attack the McCanns, who live with their younger children, nine-year-old twins, in Rothley, Leicestershire, Mrs Leyland replied: 'I'm entitled to do that.'

And when Mr Brunt told her that she had been reported to police, and that Scotland Yard was considering a dossier of Twitter accounts said to show a 'campaign of abuse' against the McCanns, she paused as she got into a 4x4 and replied: 'That's fair enough.'

The crime correspondent said he was later invited into Mrs Leyland's house, where she told him she 'had questions for the McCanns' but 'hoped she hadn't broken the law' by posting tweets in which she spread rumours about the McCanns' marriage, and said she hoped they would suffer for ever.

The messages were among those posted by internet trolls who wrongly believe that Kate and Gerry, both 46, had some involvement in the disappearance of their three-year-old daughter Madeleine in Portugal in 2007.

The couple, who were cleared by police from any part in their daughter's disappearance, have been told by trolls to 'burn in hell'.




These are some of the abusive messages, including one by @sweepyface, top right, directed at the McCanns

Some messages are even directed at Madeleine's younger twin siblings, now aged nine. According to Sky News, 'manipulated images' involving the McCanns – many of them graphic – are also in wide circulation online.

The majority of those who post the vile messages use anonymous social media accounts, so their true identities are disguised.

But detectives, who are now in talks with the Crown Prosecution Service after being handed a 65-page dossier on the campaign of abuse, are confident they can identify the culprits.

The dossier – compiled by members of the public who sympathise with the McCanns – calls on police and MPs to crack down on such abuse.

Under the 2003 Communications Act, it is an offence to send messages online that are grossly offensive.
Abuse: The messages have been posted by internet trolls who wrongly believe that Kate and Gerry had some involvement in the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine in Portugal in 2007

Abuse: The messages have been posted by internet trolls who wrongly believe that Kate and Gerry had some involvement in the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine in Portugal in 2007

Among the messages in the dossier is an exchange on a message board which reads: 'These two should burn in hell'… 'I will supply the petrol'… 'I'll supply the lighter – happily'.

Other posts include: 'We need some numbers for some assassins' and 'I want to see them… trampled by horses.'

Also, several trolls claim to live near to the McCanns. One troll who claimed to live in their village posted: 'I'm going round with the cuffs and bags.'

Another troll who claimed to live locally said: 'Saw KM at the gym today, gave her a look of utter disgust, managed to hold my tongue though.'

The dossier's authors claim that at least six Twitter accounts have been set up principally to abuse the McCanns and their supporters.

The campaigner spearheading the appeal – who has asked to remain anonymous – told Sky News: 'We're very worried that it's only going to take somebody to act out some of these discussions, some of the threats, and we couldn't live with ourselves if that happened and we had done nothing.'

Former police chief and online child security expert Jim Gamble said: 'I'm deeply concerned by the behaviours displayed… I think the time has come for the hardcore few in the midst of this group to be investigated.'

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said today: 'We can confirm we have received a letter and documentation on 9 September which was passed to officers from Operation Grange [the police review into Madeleine's disappearance].

'They are assessing its contents and consulting with the CPS and the McCann family.'

Detective Inspector Michael Kilkenny of the Metropolitan Police told the campaign group: 'In consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service and the McCann family, the material will now be assessed and decisions made as to what further action, if any, should be undertaken.'

Last night the McCanns declined to comment.  

Mike Reed I don't believe the woman is real. There are many steps she could have taken to prevent the so-called footage being broadcast if there is no clear offence being committed. Actress to embellish their story.

Mike Reed Having just watched the footage again (I first saw it bleary-eyed at 6am in work before a coffee!), that footage is staged. The woman is too wooden, no signs of annoyance or stress in her eyes (focusing or narrowing) or in her skin (reddening or tautening). Fraudulent. Wonder which department she works in Sky?

Stephen Farrant If she is an 'actress' I'm pretty sure someone will spill the beans and that really would make Brunty look like a ............................

Mike Reed Sky will have a tight-knit team round this "exclusive" Stephen. No beans will be spilt anytime soon. Not quite sure why Sky are running with this now though unless new damning evidence is about to come out...

Megan Prothallus Mike that is quite a deep thought. Agree with you, something about to break possibly. Damage limitation in progress.

tigerloaf » Thu Oct 02, 2014 7:39 pm
Jonathan Coad (Media Lawyer) and Robert Sharp (Freedom of Speech Blogger) discuss laws referring to Trolls.



While Robert Sharp really only wants to address the subject of threats and the need for threats to be credible, Jonathan Coad considers the law of harassment is pertinent to the actions of these anti McCanns. Express your opinion once, thats fine. Carry on posting that opinion to cause distress then it is harassment.

At least Robert Sharp admits that the majority of the public don't understand the law and post willy nilly without any understanding. His final point about privatised censorship is rather odd as it has always been the responsibility of citizens of this country to report crime and when a group or an individual see a crime being committed it is absolutely right that they should report that to the police. The decision to prosecute is not up to those individuals or that group of individuals. It is rightly the prerogative of the Police and the CPS to discuss and decide on that matter. This is the truth behind all laws and for him to somehow exclude laws relating to freedom of speech is quite pathetic. There is no privatisation of censorship involved in this, merely responsible people reporting a potential crime.

Thu Oct 02, 2014 7:23 pm
OK, so publishing material on social media is likened to chatting down the pub and therefore according to some that means everything said on it is OK. But imagine if you were down the pub and heard the following conversations...

People passing around a picture of a four year old girl smiling or eating an ice cream or in a pool or playing with make up saying she looks like a lolita, she looks like she is for sale, if she was a woman they would say her smile was a " come f@ck me smile", that the ice cream might be photo shopped in, sat describing different positions the child and photographer might be in and their states of dress or undress.

People passing round a mocked up missing child poster showing a photo of a child's corpse instead of an age progression.

People discussing how to drag a woman off a marathon course and into an alley implying they will rape her.

People discussing how they can actively halt a police investigation.

People singing songs making fun of a missing child.

People discussing which bus routes and activities two children take so they can get close.

People discussing how to kidnap two children.

People asking around to see who will help them execute an abduction and torture of two people.

People discussing different ways to injure a couple.

People discussing following a couple.

Then imagine that these people are all the same group and the potential victims are just one family, and that these discussions took place night and day with no let up and involved passing around of maps, bus time tables, photos etc and were coupled with leafleting the home of the victims, going to their work place, going to meetings they are attending and sitting behind the, making hundreds of videos about them telling lies to trick people into thinking they killed a child, making obscene pictures of them etc?

Imagine for one minute this was going on in a pub, does anyone think for one minute the police wouldn't be contacted?

Because this is just a snippet if what the McCann family have to endure every day, the media reports have not even touched on the worse things.

Middle-aged troll wants the McCanns to 'suffer forever'

AN INTERNET troll fled Twitter last night as police probed hundreds of online hate messages targeting Madeleine McCann’s parents.

By Jerry Lawton / Published 3rd October 2014


User @Sweepyface shut down her social networking account after being exposed for sending abusive posts to Kate and Gerry McCann, both 46.

Details of the activities of her and other trolls are included in a 67-page dossier being studied by detectives.

An investigator for Sky TV News confronted the woman they said called herself “Sweepyface”.

One of her messages called for the McCanns to suffer “for the rest of their miserable lives”. The alleged troll – who Sky did not name – was a well-spoken woman in her 50s who uses a picture of a pet dog on her internet profile.

Asked why she had targeted the couple, she told Sky News: “I’m entitled to.’’

She insisted she was not worried about the police probe but shortly afterwards closed her Twitter account.

Detectives and the Crown Prosecution Service are considering action over hundreds of online messages calling for the McCanns to be tortured and killed.

The McCanns want @Sweepyface prosecuted, a source close to the couple said last night. “This wicked person and the other trolls out there are very sad individuals,’’ he said.

“Kate and Gerry hope police take action against her, and if she gets prosecuted all the better. It is a criminal act and she needs to pay the price.’’

Scotland Yard officers probing the catalogue of online abuse have spoken directly to the McCanns.

The comments were posted on Twitter, Facebook and internet forums by trolls who wrongly believe the couple were involved in their then three-year-old daughter’s disappearance in Portugal in 2007.

Brit detectives have cleared Madeleine’s parents of any involvement. But that has not stopped sickos blitzing the web with anti-McCann abuse.

Among messages in the dossier is an exchange on a message board reading: “These 2 should burn in hell.”

Another post says: “We need some numbers for some assassins on tap.’’

Some of the trolls are understood to live near the McCanns in Rothley, Leics. One, claiming to be a neighbour, posted: “I’m going round with the cuffs and bags.’’

The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “These abusive posts are an on-going problem. Kate and Gerry will not dignify them by making any comment.’’

Hounder:

It is my belief she is being made an example of to us all. Are they running scared or, what with the sighting, Summers&Swan pulling their references to the book and Gerry's Guardian hissy fit at the Sunday Times, is something about to happen?

A church-going mother-of-two has been uncovered as one of the internet ‘trolls’ who bombarded the family of Madeleine McCann with vile abuse.

Cristobell Author ‏@RosalindaHu 1 min1 minute ago
@fishyduds2 Methinks the pro #McCann trolls having bit of clear out - STMs has gone members (approx. 6) only.

http://news.sky.com/story/1346687/gerry-mccann-says-make-example-of-web-trolls

Gerry McCann Says Make Example Of Web Trolls
Madeleine McCann's father calls for more prosecutions after Sky News revealed details of a dossier of abuse targeting his family.

Madeleine McCann's father has called for tougher action against web trolls after Sky News exposed a woman who abused his family online.

Gerry McCann said online abuse had caused "severe distress" to him and his wife Kate and that police should be more willing to prosecute the perpetrators.

He was speaking after Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt revealed in a special report that Scotland Yard is investigating a dossier of social media abuse targeting the McCanns - whose three-year-old daughter went missing on a family holiday in 2007.

When confronted over her actions, one of the trolls, who used the name "Sweepyface" online, told Sky News she believed she was "entitled" to attack the couple on Twitter.

Mr McCann said he had not read the Sweepyface tweets, but he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Clearly something needs to be done about the abuse on the internet. I think we probably need more people to be charged.

"We do not have any significant presence on social media or online and I've got grave concerns about our children as they grow up and start to access the internet in an unsupervised capacity.

"People are threatening to kidnap our children, people are threatening violence against Kate and myself."

He said police should be more willing to charge internet trolls.

"I'm glad to see the law around this area has been reviewed. We need to make examples of people who are causing damage," he said.

"It causes us severe distress. There is so much vile nonsense written on the internet."

Mr McCann also branded the Sunday Times "disgraceful" after winning a £55,000 libel payout over a story which claimed the couple had deliberately hindered the search for Madeleine, who vanished in Praia da Luz.

He said the story showed there had been no change in the newspaper industry as a result of the Leveson Inquiry.

"This damaged us, it damaged the reputation of the fund and it quite potentially can damage the search for Madeleine," he said.

It's interesting to see what haters like Bennett, Sweepy, the vile Doogue woman and a few others have in common - they're all God-botherers, pretending to be 'christians' while actually being pretty evil.

Fascinating to see how many of Sweepy's former friends and fellow lynch-mobbers are now turning on her, and announcing that she was a fake all along, and IN IT to provide 'Team McCann' with a story.

Let's hope she's reading it all, and it's dawning on her just what deranged scum she's been hanging around with.

I am quite sure most of the 'hate the Mccann' trolls are aware they too are about to be exposed in the same way B Leyland was. Mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and, grandparents; named and shamed for all to see.
I wonder if the foul spewing fools gave a moments thought to the embarrassment their families will suffer once their vile written deeds are on display in the media for all the world to see?
How will it affect their standing in the workplace, their community?
What about their children and grandchildren, will the troll care when those innocents are being hounded because of their putrid relative troll's actions?
Did it ever once enter their thick cartilaginous case that encloses and protects the brain there would be repercussion for their illegal hounding of the McCanns?

As a very wise woman once said, 'Feed the wind reap the whirlwind'. Well those demented fools  fed the wind with gusto; I therefor advise the despots to batten down the hatches,.....there's a hurricane a-comin'.

Jayelles » Fri Oct 03, 2014 3:08 pm
Sweepyface has posted some truly awful things about the McCanns and it wasn't just "dozens" as reported in the media, it was thousands. She demonstrated zero empathy for Kate McCann as the mother of a missing child - someone who has been going through every parent's worst nightmare. Now she is experiencing a tiny sliver of what Kate and Gerry McCann have had to ensure for the past seven years from people like Sweepy and those she hung out with online. Interest in Sweepy will die down in a day or so, but the McCanns have been subjected to this abuse all day, every day for seven long years.

Rothley Pillowcase™ ‏@RothleyPillow 1 min1 minute ago
@KayBurley And I'm the one responsible for demanding @ukhomeoffice start WATERBOARDING entities like the #McCann gang & THE OTHERS! #Savile

http://www.stopthemyths.info/viewtopic.php?f=115&t=7098&sid=399dfc67173e60d9ae6605a5aea3c9bd&start=150

She looks like she has had fillers and botox on the cheap. Its weired because everyone says they don't think she looks like a troll, but in fact she is exactly the type you imagine sending poison pen letters. I doubt she has a nice reputation in her village anyway.

David Steel ‏@DaSteelMan
'Troll Dossier' - Im confused to why it should b passed to Op. Grange. Surely that is for another department & not in their remit? #McCann

It seems that one Cristobell considers heself to be a victim of Team McCann Trolls.

"I suggest anyone interested in this story should check out the internet group who compiled this dossier - Stop the Myths, JATKY2 - read their forums, and then try to justify these Groups, Mr. Brunt. You will find quite a few pages relating to myself, together with a variety of obscene, photoshopped pictures of me. Tell me Mr. Brunt, is it not considered vile behaviour if it comes from supporters of the McCanns? When I lost my mother I spent an evening with a group of them trying to persuade me to commit suicide? Is that still OK with you and Mr. Gamble?

I will never know if my book Cry and You Cry Alone - a memoir of my time in care - was good or bad, because of my McCann stance. I was the 'evil' one. I never look at my own Amazon page, because they did their worst. So Summers and Swan you are not the first authors to have been targeted in this case and it wasn't even about the McCanns.

It is absolute nonsense to suggest that the McCanns or their children are being threatened - 99% of those who do not believe the McCanns are normal people who conduct themselves with the same courtesy and civility as they would in the real world. Sky, or whoever is the source of this story, has picked out 1% of the online commentary on the McCann case, and remarks by the way, that none of the recognised Madeleine forums would ever tolerate. It in no way represents the majority of people who do not believe the McCanns. "

coco wrote:sounds like her nose is out of joint cos she' s not the star turn . she doesn' t half tell some whoppers , no wonder she lost her court case .

Re: Martin Brunt Confronts Twiiter "Troll"
Post jeanmonroe Today at 2:19 pm



I have phoned Grange this morning (Tel 020 7321 9251) and asked them to urgently investigate this 'threat', imo, made yesterday to the lady, Martin Brunt of Sky News, 'exposed' as 'a dissenter' of the McCanns.

(Don't even get me started on the 'grammer' and 'spelling' by this TWAIT!)  

Joana Morais ‏@xklamation 3h3 hours ago
@robertsharp59 Everything was supplied by an extremist #Mccann supporter group.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/woman.who.trolled.kate.and.gerry.mccann.on.twitter.is.a.regular.churchgoer/41237.htm
ChristianToday

Woman who trolled Kate and Gerry McCann on Twitter is a regular churchgoer
Published 03 October 2014  |   Lucinda Borkett-Jones

A woman who posted numerous hate messages about the McCann family on Twitter is a regular churchgoer, the Times reports.

Brenda Leyland, 63, is one of a number of people being investigated for trolling the family of Madeleine McCann who went missing on a family holiday in Portugal in 2007.

Using the Twitter account '@Sweepyface', which has since been deleted, Leyland made offensive remarks such as: "'#McCann Q: How long must the McCanns suffer' answer 'for the rest of their miserable lives'."

Those sending the messages believe, with little or no evidence, that Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, had something to do with their daughter's disappearance.

Another troll in the group of McCann haters wrote on Twitter: "I'm in the mood for some waterboarding, who's first K or G? #McCann let's sort this **** out."

Over the past few years hundreds of terrible messages have been posted, some directing the remarks at the McCanns' nine-year-old twins.

Yesterday Sky News reporter Martin Brunt confonted Leyland outside her home in the quiet village of Burton Overy, Leicestershire – just 15 miles from the McCanns' home.

When he asked her why she was using her Twitter account to attack the McCanns, she said: "I'm entitled to do that."

Brunt told her that she had been reported to the police, to which she replied: "That's fair enough."
Facebook
Brenda Leyland

An 80-page dossier of Facebook posts, Tweets and comments on online forums attacking the McCanns has been handed to the Metropolitan Police, who are now assessing it in consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service.

When the Times approached Leyland's neighbours and friends in the village, they said she was "very nice".

"She's a lovely woman and a very good friend. She's a regular churchgoer," said another.

Sykes wrote:

Re: Martin Brunt Confronts Twiiter "Troll"
Post jeanmonroe Today at 2:19 pm



I have phoned Grange this morning (Tel 020 7321 9251) and asked them to urgently investigate this 'threat', imo, made yesterday to the lady, Martin Brunt of Sky News, 'exposed' as 'a dissenter' of the McCanns.

(Don't even get me started on the 'grammer' and 'spelling' by this TWAIT!)  

Someone doesn't seem to know what HMP Shotts is.....

And while I would normally feel sorry for anyone getting abuse from trolls, I don't in Sweepy's case - it's poetic justice that she's getting a tiny taste of what she and others have been doing to the McCanns.

And just in caae anyone doesn't know what HMP Shotts is -

Jayelles » Fri Oct 03, 2014 7:11 pm
A certain American lady who posted a faked and extremely libelous tweet and attributed it to a witness in the Mccann case causing that person to be attacked and threatened both on Twitter and Facebook, claims to be flying to London in a few weeks with a view to taking legal action re the posting of a genuine screencapture of a tweet she made.

I'm sure the information that she will be on British soil will be of some interest to the police as well as the lawyers of the witness who was abused and harassed.

Posting screencaptures of tweets is not against the law here. Faking libelous tweets and inciting intimidation of witness in major criminal cases IS.

Lady in question might also be interested in a little difference between US and British law. In the US, anyone can subpoena the ID of someone they might decide to sue without it being tested for validity in front of a judge first. In the UK, the case must be tested for validity by a judge BEFORE the subpoena will be approved. This deters the kind of frivolous lawsuits and fishing trips we often see in the US.

Data Protection is a big thing in Europe.

Another difference between the US and the UK is this. In the US, if person A decided to sue person B, then it would cost person B lots of $$$s to defend the suit regardless of whether that suit is won or not. In the UK, if person A decides to sue person B and person A loses, then they not only have to pay their own costs, but those of person B too. This also deters the kind of frivolous lawsuits we often see in the US.

Food for thought