Sky under mounting pressure over McCann Twitter troll suicide
Sky News has come under pressure from social media activists to take action against its crime correspondent Martin Brunt, following the death of a Twitter troll he had publicly named and shamed.
The broadcaster ran a piece on Sunday labelling Brenda Leyland as a troll who had run a campaign of online intimidation and abuse against the parents of Madeleine McCann (though Brunt did not name Leyland nor identify her address).
Leyland was later found dead in a hotel room in Leicester igniting a storm of controversy.
Public outrage at the incident has seen venom directed at Brunt himself with a Facebook group calling for the correspondent to be sacked generating almost 1,400 ‘likes’. One Twitter user even went so far as to post his home address and name of his wife.
Ofcom has so far received a total of 34 complaints relating to the broadcast but has made no decision as to whether to launch an investigation as of this point.