Clarence Mitchell told reporters afterwards that the official Madeleine Twitter account was deleted due to “abusive comments” on social media and will now focus solely on Facebook.
“Kate and Gerry McCann have always supported the campaign to find Ben Needham, indeed they have promoted it on their Find Madeleine Campaign social media platforms”, Clarence Mitchell was quoted as saying, adding: “However, it is a great pity that due to continued, ill-informed and abusive comments by some social media users, the decision has been taken to discontinue the Find Madeleine Twitter account.”
He added that Kate and Gerry continue to wish Ben’s mother, Kerry, all the best and they hope that she will one day be reunited with Ben, just as they, similarly, continue to hope that they will be reunited with Madeleine.
Ben Needham’s mother had earlier told the Mirror she was hurt by the move.
“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,” she told the newspaper.
“I have never criticised the McCann family. I have only ever criticised the authorities for the way the two cases have been handled so differently.”
The Find Madeleine web-master explained earlier that following consultation with Kate and Gerry, they have deleted their Twitter media accounts.
In a statement, the webmaster said: “They agree it’s time to remove ourselves from a place that allows so much toxic content to be directed at us and does not permit us the ability to protect ourselves from people who want to damage the search for Madeleine.”
It was further explained that there has been dismay at “some of the hatred and sheer viciousness directed at Kate and Gerry through our social media accounts for no logical reason at all. At times, it has had me in tears. It is hard to accept that some people can be so cruel to a family that has already experienced the worst pain imaginable.”
The Facebook and Twitter accounts were started in 2008 to raise awareness of the campaign to find Madeleine, who disappeared during a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.
Ms Needham’s 21-month-old son Ben, from Sheffield, vanished from the Greek island of Kos in July 1991.
Earlier this week, the McCann family’s representative wrote “there has been a concerted effort to get people to stop looking for Madeleine. Some argue the search costs too much, others say it’s hopeless. We don’t believe the search for Madeleine is hopeless and putting up polls asking if the search should stop is not only crass, it’s cruel. How can one put a price on the life of a child?”
This comes following an online survey by Closer magazine asking readers whether police should call off the search for Madeleine McCann.

At the time of going to press, more than 10,600 people had voted, with 82 percent (8,800 votes) voting “let’s keep looking.”