Can anyone provide a cite that Brenda was being 'abusive' ?
and what the legal definition of 'online abuse' is? I would say you can't because it isn't defined in law.
We have laws already covering harassment and sending 'grossly offensive' materials online. Police did not find Brenda was doing these things, so the claim that she was engaging in abuse which warrants targeting by the media is entirely subjective and it's a moot point even using Brenda being 'abusive' as she broke no law.
Some posters think it was justified doorstepping a private individual just because one group of people don't like some of the opinions expressed by another? Maybe China, Russia or Saudi Arabia is the kind of place these people would prefer to live, where discussion on certain subjects is restricted and punished?
I spent many years teaching children from age five to eleven.
Children can often blurt out unkind remarks to each other when they are annoyed or feel they have a grievance .
Much time is spent by the teacher in helping the children to become more mature in their behaviour and to find a better way of handling their sense of grievance.
Hopefully by the time they are adults these children will have developed and matured enough to be able to express their grievances without resorting to unkind and abusive language.
Brenda, in my opinion, felt very aggrieved by the parents of a missing child and handled her grievance in a very immature way.
She certainly had the right to express her doubts about the parents of a missing child but she chose to express those doubts in abusive and menacing language in a public arena.
Like the children, her words may not have been criminal but in my opinion they were wrong.