An internet troll who mocked up a twisted photo of missing Maddie McCann’s head on a controversial H&M jumper has responded to the backlash with some vile new images.
On January 8 an advert for a £7.99 H&M green hooded children’s top, emblazoned with the phrase ‘Coolest Monkey In The Jungle’, was taken down after people complained it portrayed racism – the top in question was modelled by a black child while the other items in the range were modelled by white children.
However, twitter troll Kieron Marsh decided to have his own tasteless take on the controversy and posted an image online of Madeleine McCann’s face, photoshopped onto a jumper which read: ‘hide and seek champion’.
Captioning the photo, Kieron wrote:
Absolutely disgusting from H&M, I’m ashamed
The post was retweeted over 25,000 times and liked by 68,000 Twitter users, at the time of writing.
However, as well as sparking fury from the world of Twitter, it’s also believed to have upset Maddie’s own parents – Kate and Gerry McCann – who once again, have been targeted by trolls via social media.
A source close to the McCanns told The Sun:
It’s the start of the New Year and they can’t believe all this tasteless rubbish is resurfacing again. It’s so offensive and so unnecessary.
We’ve had all this sort of stuff before and now it’s back up there again.
It causes more hurt to a family still suffering but they do their best to ignore negativity and spiteful postings.
The backlash seems to have unfazed Marsh from Ipswich, Suffolk though – he seems to be celebrating his newfound internet ‘fame’ and responded with another tweet, this time reading:
As if I’ve rattled the McCanns.
F*ck The Sun newspaper.
Deciding he hadn’t upset the distraught parents quite enough, Marsh went on to target them directly, this time with a new tweet and another vile photoshopped image.
The image showed a mocked up photo of Kate and Gerry, wearing grey and black hoodies which read: ‘Mum of the year’ and ‘Dad of the year’. He later updated the messages on the hoodies to imply the parents were responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance.
Marsh captioned the inappropriate post on Twitter in a similar way to his previous:
I’m absolutely disgusted with H&M certainly will not be shopping there again first Maddie now Kate and Gerry.
Marsh’s latest post is sure to upset users on Twitter, as well as Kate and Gerry once again, who are victims of trolls on a daily basis.
It’s estimated Maddie’s parents receive more than 150 abusive messages from social media users every day.
Both Kate and Gerry have never given up hope Maddie – who disappeared while on a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, back in 2007 – is still alive.
