Unmasked Madeleine troll took her own life

A MOTHER of two took her own life after being unmasked as the troll behind hundreds of offensive tweets about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, an inquest heard yesterday.

Exposure on Sky News is said to have left Brenda Leyland a broken wreck. The 63-year- old took an overdose of antidepressants before gassing herself in a four-star hotel room.

The inquest heard she had a history of severe depression, had ‘unstable emotional personality traits’, mood swings and had attempted suicide.

Martin Brunt, Sky’s crime correspondent, told the coroner that Mrs Leyland had said to him she was considering ‘ending it all’ in a conversation the day after he approached her outside her home in Burton Overy, Leicestershire.

But he said he considered this a throwaway remark because her mood then lightened and she said she had spoken to her son about her ‘silly’ tweets. In ten months, she sent or retweeted 424 posts directly related to the McCann

‘She was a broken wreck’

case. Police later determined that they were not unlawful.

Mr Brunt told the hearing: ‘I was devastated and I still am. The enormity of what happened will always be with me.’

Mrs Leyland’s son, Benjamin, said he had no doubt that her interview last September with Sky was the final straw.

‘She was a broken wreck, completely destroyed,’ he said. In the written statement he added that his mother displayed ‘erratic and sometimes vicious behaviour’ and could alienate those close to her.

She fled her home after the Sky interview – which did not identify her by name – telling a neighbour she needed to lay low. She was found dead in the Leicester Marriott three days later.

Catherine Mason, Leicester coroner, concluded Mrs Leyland had taken her own life. Her family did not attend the hearing in the city.

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