"Troll-Hunting" Site Shuts Down After Hunters Bag a Troll
Despite the fact that British toddler Madeleine McCann disappeared seven years ago while on vacation with her family in Portugal, the heavily covered British tabloid case still captivates a certain subset of Twitter trolls. This weekend, one of these alleged trolls was found dead in a hotel room after information about her was exposed online.
According to Channel 4 News, the wiki "McCann Hate Exposed," which contained dossiers of information about 27 McCann trolls, was shut down this week in the wake of 63-year-old Brenda Leyland's death, whose information was reportedly compromised.
The wiki, apparently managed by supporters of the McCann family, was dedicated to exposing Internet users who have ceaselessly spewed hate the at the McCanns on Twitter. Though Gerry and Kate McCann were cleared of wrongdoing when Portugal's attorney general closed the McCann case in 2008, many trolls believe the parents are still somehow at fault. Leyland, for example, allegedly tweeted about the McCanns more than 4,200 times under the username @sweepyface (now deleted), one time suggesting that they should suffer "for the rest of their miserable lives."
Last week, Sky News TV, possibly using information obtained from the wiki, confronted Leyland outside her home. Shortly thereafter she disappeared from her neighborhood and was found dead in a Leicestershire hotel room days later. Cops aren't treating her death as suspicious.
Leyland's son, Ben, defended his mother to the Daily Mirror, saying that "no one has a clue" what she was really like. A neighbor described her to the Mirror: "She must have been a sick woman. Trolling was her hobby, sadly."
The McCanns haven't commented on Leyland's death. Cops are currently investigating the "McCann Hate Exposed" dossiers.
[Photo of Leyland via Sky News]