October 6th 2014
A 63-year-old woman accused of trolling Madeleine McCann's family has was found dead at the weekend, with police not treating the death as suspicious.
Brenda Leyland, from Leicestershire, was accused of being one of the people who conducted a campaign of abuse against Kate and Gerry McCann via Twitter. She was confronted outside her home last week by a Sky News reporter – who said that she had tweeted messages attacking the family via the handle @sweepyface, to which she responded "I'm entitled to do that".
Four days later she was found dead in a guest room at the Marriott hotel in Leicester.
A Leicestershire Police spokesperson said: "Police were called at 13:42 on Saturday 4 October to reports of a body of a woman in a hotel room in Smith Way, Grove Park. Officers have attended the scene and a file is being prepared for the coroner. The death is not being treated as suspicious.
Sky issued a statement saying: "We were saddened to hear of the death of Brenda Leyland. It would be inappropriate to speculate or comment further at this time."
The hotel issued a statement saying: "We are very sad to confirm the death of a guest at the Leicester Marriott Hotel and our thoughts go out to the family and friends of the deceased."
Madeleine McCann,then aged 3 years, shown here, disappeared whilst on holiday In Portugal in 2007. Her father Gerry told the BBC on Friday: "Clearly something needs to be done about the abuse on the internet. I think we probably need more people charged."
