Sky News has offered its “sincere condolences” to the family of a woman who killed herself after being doorstepped by one of its senior reporters over abusive tweets she had directed at the parents of missing Madeleine McCann.

The news channel’s crime correspondent, Martin Brunt, told an inquest that Brenda Leyland, 63, said she had thought of “ending it all” but that she was “feeling better now”. He said he thought the remark – made days after he had confronted her – was “a throwaway line”.

Leyland was found dead in a hotel room in Leicester on 4 October last year, two days after Brunt’s report aired on Sky.



“I was devastated and I still am,” Brunt told the inquest at Leicester town hall. “The enormity of what happened will always be with me.”

Coroner Catherine Mason heard Leyland was a proud woman whose standing in her community meant everything to her, and who suffered depression and had made a previous suicide attempt.

On 30 September she was approached by Brunt and a cameraman outside her village home in Burton Overy, Leicestershire, after the journalist was given a dossier containing details of people allegedly posting abusive tweets about Kate and Gerry McCann, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared in Portugal in 2007. Leyland had posted or reposted more than 400 tweets about the McCanns, the inquest heard.

Brunt said he identified himself and asked her: “Why are you using your Twitter account to attack the McCanns?”

At first she did not respond, then replied: “I’m entitled to.”

“I said: ’Are you aware that your tweets are contained in a dossier that has been passed to Scotland Yard?’ And she said: ‘That’s fair enough.’”

She then left, but on her return later that day he approached her again and she said “Come in, Martin”, which surprised him. During a 30-minute discussion she explained her views on the McCanns, and was clearly concerned about being exposed on television and identified.

Brunt said he explained the decision was not his. “I did say I would keep her informed because I am aware of the impact such a confrontation can have on somebody,” he said.

He gave her his contact details and she contacted him the following day. Asked if there was anything in her voice to cause concern, Brunt said: “No, but when I asked her how she was, she said: ‘Oh, I’ve thought about ending it all but I am feeling better. I have had a drink and I’ve spoken to my son.’” He said he thought it was a throwaway remark. He did not know of her medical history, he said.

Sky broadcast footage of Leyland, but did not name her or give details of where she lived, the inquest heard.

Leyand’s younger son, Ben, who was not present, said in a statement she was a loving mother, a proud and stubborn woman, and “could not bear to think she could be disliked by those in her community”. He said she suffered from extreme bouts of depression and anxiety and was on medication.

Before the Sky News approach, she had been upset by a “fractious” dispute with a neighbour over an issue concerning a wall.

He had “no doubt” from the panic in his mother’s voice when she telephoned to tell him of the Sky News incident that “this was the final straw that pushed her then to do what she did”.

He said his mother was “completely destroyed” by what had occurred. He was trying to organise legal advice for her, he said. In her last email to him, she said she felt “cheerier”.

When later he could not reach her, he and his brother and father thought she had gone somewhere to “lie low” as she had asked a neighbour to look after her cat for a few days.

The inquest heard between November 2013 and September 2014, using the Twitter ID @sweepyface, she had tweeted or retweeted 2,210 posts, of which 424 mentioned the McCanns. Her tweets did not constitute a criminal offence, the inquest heard.

Brunt approached her after a dossier of tweets about the McCanns was passed to him by a source, whom he declined to reveal. The coroner said she could not compel him to reveal it and that Brunt was not accused of any criminal offence.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Mason said she did not think that anyone could have known that Leyland had made a decision to take her own life.

Jonathan Levy, senior manager at Sky News, said the approach was in line with the broadcaster’s guidelines on doorstepping: deemed to be warranted when public good outweighed intrusion, and as long as the method was proportionate.

Leyland had not accessed Twitter after Brunt’s approach and would not have seen “disturbing” tweets about herself, which are being investigated, the inquest heard.

A Sky News spokesman said: “Brenda Leyland’s tragic death highlights the unforeseeable human impact that the stories we pursue can have, and Sky News would like to extend its sincere condolences to her family.”



“The team at Sky News followed its editorial guidelines and pursued a story in a responsible manner that we believed was firmly in the public interest.”