The parents of missing child Madeleine McCann have deleted their Twitter account because of the abuse heaped on them by online trolls.
The Official Find Madeleine Campaign announced the decision yesterday, saying the Twitter account had attracted ‘toxic’ commentary.
Much of the commentary seems to relate to the amount spent on the campaign to find Madeleine, compared to the amount spent on the search for other missing children.
The Mirror reports that Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann decided to close the Twitter account after supporters of Find Madeleine campaign clashed with supporters of a campaign to find another missing child, Ben Needham, who disappeared at 21 months old from the Greek island of Kos in 1991.
Ben was staying with his Mum and his grandparents on the island when he disappeared but the campaign to find him has attracted a fraction of the attention given to the McCanns.
Ben’s mother, Kate Needham, told the Mirror: “I have myself had massive amounts of slanderous abuse from supporters of the McCann Campaign in the past but I have never taken that personally.
“It’s freedom of speech. But it is getting the names of two missing children out there which is really important.”
Ms Needham said she has never been “anti McCann” but has questioned the more than $20 million spent to find Madeline which is vastly more than the $1.6 million spent on finding Ben.
