McCann troll commits suicide

Log of the tweets from her account

I wonder how many people she had really close to her.

I agree, iam, about the horror of finding someone close to you has committed suicide.

I'm wondering now whether whoever found her, or any close family members, had any inkling of her trolling activities before what she had done became public. Or, to put it another way, I wonder if anyone close to her was totally surprised when her trolling became public knowledge or wherher they were aghast.

I wonder what research is going on into the individuals who hide behind the internet to express such dreadful threats and abuse to others.

I feel for BL's loved ones, to find your mother/sister/friend has behaved like this, and then taken their life is beyond words.

No, I wouldn't say she asked for it Nightowl.
Two wrongs don't make a right, and the internet has given free rein to the sort of people who support vigilantism in real life.
The due processes of law haven't kept pace with the speed at which cyber-technology has developed.

O M G!

Bloody technology. Is it worth it?

I am truly not obsessed with Brenda Leyland, but someone I know who is far more interested in this than I am has just told me about the level of abuse Brenda Leyland received on the Internet from supporters of the McCanns. You may say she asked for it by posting in the first place, but the level of abuse directed at her was shocking. She was threatened in the most graphic terms with rape, torture, and murder, all within the last few weeks. I believe the post mortem did not come up with a cause of death, so I really hope these people who called themselves 'the kind, caring supporters of the McCanns' are being sought by the police and ruled out of inquiries.

I agree with Rowantree that we all have done things which we wouldn't want others to find out about - but how many of us kept doing those things for several years? As I said before I regret the death of this woman and feel utmost sympathy for her family but she was obviously an educated intelligent woman who chose to join in a campaign of hate towards a couple she had never met who were suffering the loss of a child.

I'm with jingl and others on this one. I'd hazard a guess that some of us have in the past done things they now feel deeply ashamed about. Whilst it's not excusable as such, I'd err on the side of compassion. For whatever reason, she made wrong choices and got carried away, without thinking through the consequences - or maybe she was unable to do so. As jingl rightly says, it's not easy to distinguish whether someone has a mental health problem or an unfortunate character trait. It's a continuum, and even psychiatrists often find it difficult to tell. I speak from experience: my mental health diagnosis has been debated and discussed at nauseum, whilst I continue to wonder whether I am simply an unpleasant and subhuman individual for having the thoughts and feelings I have, who is finding that knowledge painful to accept.
As to the alleged killer of Alice Gross, we might never know the truth, but in this country people are presumed innocent till proven guilty. Try telling that to the lynch-mob media!

Were I to do something as nasty as this and be found out, I would move house. But even if I was tempted to do something like this the thought of the reactions of close family members and friends if it came out would keep me on the straight and narrow.

Apologies for mixing the two deaths up. The hanging was the murderer of the young girl. This lady died in an hotel room.

Suit yer flippin' self.

So 'mentally unbalanced' is nothing like 'mentally unwell'??
So sorry jingl.
I'll really try to interpret your posts more carefully in future <goes off grovelling>

That post wasn't only addressed to janea btw.

Just out of interest, if you had fallen into this trap - and no, I know Gransnetters wouldn't, but just imagine - and the Sky reporter had door stepped you, what would have been your reaction? Would you have found a tree and hanged yourself, or just carried on and lived it down? Or even found another way, such as moving to another district?

Maybe it would depend upon how strong you were mentally and emotionally.

ja That is nothing like stating categorically that this person was categorically mentally unwell. I sometimes wonder why I bother to post anything on here.

And I also said somewhere that even psychologists have difficulty in distinguishing between a mental disorder and a personality one. I certainly wouldn't presume to diagnose that!

The growth of this sort of thing on the internet should not be a surprise. There has always been a fine line between gossip, malicious gossip, bullying and libel.

I have always found gossip hard to understand. Why do people need to discuss those they don't know? This women said she had a right to an opinion but the right to free speech also carries duties and responsibilities.

I agree that anonymity is a problem. When Mary Beard was being abused it only took one person to say they knew the mother of the young man making some really vile (and possibly illegal) comments and could give MB the information when he suddenly became very apologetic. I think unmasking some of the worst of these "commentators" is a service to us all.

I guess there has always been mentally unbalanced people in society and these days the technology is just there literally at their fingertips.

That was you on Tuesday jingl. Ok it wasn't a statement that she had a mental illness, but the implication was clear.

I think since we no longer use euphemistic phrases like "they're a bit nuts" "got a screw loose" - and I understand why we don't - it's difficult to describe people that behave strangely or do odd things, other than by using the phrase "mental health problems" in a general sense. I suppose a better phrase would be "psychological problems"...

Have I missed something on here? Has someone stated categorically that this lady did have a mental illness?

Still, I'm very glad to see people feeling the need to defend the thousands daily swallowing the Prozac (like me). Very kind.

It's good to see posters pointing out that people don't have to have mental health problems to behave badly.

To attribute cruelty to mental health does a real disservice to folks who do have mental health problems, yet do their best not to allow this to ruin the lives of those around them.

Suicide is a desperate act, leaving such pain in its wake. As others have said, there have always been nasty people, who hid behind the anonymity of poison pen letters. The internet is largely a very positive thing, but it has given free reign to some very nasty individuals.

The tweets can all be read on the Internet. I haven't read all of them because there are too many, but I have got a sense of them. Form your own judgements.

I am neither anti-McCann nor sympathetic to Brenda Leyland. I just like to think I am fair, and try to judge on the basis of evidence. That would be the case if the so called 'troll' was a woman of my age or a 23 year old man.

Well, I can assure you there is nothing anti-McCanns in my thinking on this!

Nightowl - some of her tweets that I've seen reported are pretty vile. And the sheer number of them. It doesn't matter in one way whether the McCanns saw them or not - I wonder how we'd feel if vicious vile comments were bring made about us even if we didn't actually read them. I really can't understand the sympathy for her - is it because she was about our sort of age? I also feel that there is a string anti- McCann undercurrent in British society and I think that explains maybe some of the support she's getting.

And what harm did she actually do? Do you really think the McCanns bother to read stuff like that? I seriously doubt it.

That's not to say I condone it, but neither do I think she deserved to be outed to the world' media.