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Katie Hopkins provoked predictable criticism after she shared her views on the parents of Madeleine McCann on Twitter.
Her comments came as Brenda Leyland , a woman who was accused by Sky News of being one of a dozen online users who have been trolling the couple on the internet, was found dead in a Leicestershire hotel .
Gerry and Kate McCann’s daughter went missing in 2007. The pair have publicly campaigned for information about the disappearance of Madeleine ever since.
"I cannot believe you have just written that," the user tweeted.
"Believe it - and get over yourself," Hopkins tweeted back. "Plenty think it. Imagine if I left my children alone and went out. Forgiveness?"
After receiving a further backlash on Twitter, she posted the following:
Leyland, 63, was confronted on her doorstep by Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt on Wednesday 1 October, who questioned her about her apparent online abuse using the Twitter handle @sweepyface.
Asked why she was using the account to virtually attack the McCanns, she answered: "I’m entitled to do that."
Show all 25 1 /25The Madeleine McCann case The Madeleine McCann case Madeleine McCann One of the last photos of Madeleine before her disappearance
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The Madeleine McCann case Madeleine McCann Madeleine McCann was three when she was abducted during a family holiday in 2007
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The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann Madeleine McCann was abducted in Portugal in May 2007
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The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann Preliminary forensic analysis on samples recovered from the McCanns' hire car raised the possibility of a match with Madeleine's DNA profile, according to the leaked report
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The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann Gerald McCann and Kate McCann speak to the press on 4 May 2007 at the Ocean club appartement hotel in Praia de Luz in Lagos after Madeline vanished while her parents were out to dinner
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The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann Gerald McCann and Kate McCann walk holding their two other children outside the Ocean club apartment hotel in Praia de Luz in May 2007
The Madeleine McCann case Madeleine McCann Madeleine McCann pictured at the age of three, left, and as she might have looked aged nine
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The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann The parents of missing Madeleine McCann have described as "pure speculation" reports in the Portuguese press suggesting that a chief suspect in the disappearance of their daughter was killed in a tractor accident four years ago.
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The Madeleine McCann case Support for the missing Madeleine Everton captain Lee Carsley (L) leads his team onto the field, followed Mikel Arteta (C) and Manuel Fernandes (R) wearing Tshirts bearing a message of support for the missing British toddler Madeleine McCann, prior to the English Premiership match between Chelsea and Everton, at Stamford Bridge in London, 2007
The Madeleine McCann case Madeleine McCann A poster appealing for information about Madeleine McCann at a Spanish railway station
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The Madeleine McCann case BBC's Crimewatch reconstruction of Madeleine McCann's disappearance Former porn star Mark Sloan (L) was cast in the BBC's Crimewatch reconstruction of Madeleine McCann's disappearance
BBC
The Madeleine McCann case Clarence Mitchell holds two artist's impression of the new suspect McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell holds two artist's impression of the new suspect on 20 January 2008 in London. The description has come from British woman Gail Cooper, who was staying with her family close to the McCann's apartment in Portugal
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The Madeleine McCann case Raymond Hewlett Convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett, who is being sought in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
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The Madeleine McCann case A picture of a suspect An artist's impression of a suspicious man seen by a witness apparently watching the McCann family's apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, the day before Madeleine McCann went missing
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When Brunt told her that her activities had been reported to the police, she said: "That’s fair enough."
The doorstep interview was aired on Sky News on Thursday 2 October. The following day, a neighbour reported that Leyland had left the village.
"Somebody took a photo of her on Thursday afternoon and then she was gone," they told the Leicester Mercury newspaper anonymously. "I haven’t seen her since."
A Leicestershire Police spokeswoman said yesterday: "Police were called at 1.42pm on Saturday 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. Identification of the deceased is a matter for the coroner. The death is not being treated as suspicious."
