Halloween reveller slammed for dressing up as Maddie

Halloween reveller slammed for dressing up as Maddie



A Halloween reveller has sparked outrage for dressing up as missing girl Madeleine McCann and making a 'cheap dig' at her parents.



Daniel Gearie, 25, from Dundee, posted the iconic picture of Maddie, who disappeared from her hotel apartment in Portugal in 2007, smiling in her Everton shirt next to an image of himself in the same top with a blonde wig on.



Alongside the two images, he tweeted: 'You've taken it too far daniel (sic).'



He then appeared to defend his actions, saying: 'And before you say 'this is sick' etc I know it is but I'm not the one who left a child unattended in a Portuguese hotel.'



His post on Saturday night went viral and sparked outrage among Twitter users, who branded him 'sick' and 'vile'. And a family spokesman for the McCanns described it as 'cretinous behaviour'.



Miss Mac wrote: 'Ugh @DanielGearie dressing up as a missing child for Halloween is lower than a snakes belly. Vile t**t'



Mike Callaghan tweeted: 'What a depressing thing to wake up to. Whats wrong wi some folk? Trying to excuse yourself by having a cheap dig at parents. Super creep.'



Northern Union said: 'This is so so wrong.. You clearly do not have kids.'





And Jay added: 'Absolute f***y u need a slap.'



A few hours later, Mr Gearie apologised for causing offence and deleted his original tweet.



He added: 'I've already admitted earlier it's something I regret however I need to be open and honest about what I've done, can't hide from it.'





A spokesman for the McCann family told MailOnline: 'Kate and Gerry have never dignified this sort of offensive and cretinous behaviour with any sort of comment at all and they are not going to start now.



'It is right the material has been deleted.'



Speaking to MailOnline this afternoon, Mr Gearie said he was 'disgusted' by his own actions and issued an apology to the McCanns.



He said: 'I would like to unreservedly apologise for what I have done. There is no defending it. It was vile and disgusting and I am disgusted at myself.



'My family are heartbroken. It was a sheer moment of stupidity.



'I was going to a party with close friends and I didn't tell anyone about it. I wanted to surprise them and provoke a reaction.



'But I knew I'd gone too far and there was a lot of nervous laughter. Everyone knew it was far too close to the bone.



'I put it on Twitter before anyone else did. And there is no defending what I wrote after - I should have kept away from my phone after a few drinks.



'All I can say is that I am completely embarrassed about what I did and I'm very sorry.'



In August this year, Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry McCann, pleaded with trolls to stop abusing them online.



The couple are targeted by 150 vile tweets every day, according to research into online abuse.



The couple told how they still try to shield their 12-year-old old twins from cruel, false and libellous taunts being made against the family, which Kate describes as 'shocking, striking and quite hard to get your head round.'





Three-year-old Maddie vanished from a Praia da Luz in May 2007. She had been left alone sleeping with her younger siblings while her parents were dining with pals in a nearby tapas restaurant.



Maddie's disappearance sparked one of the largest missing person's probes ever.



Although she and Gerry try avoid to social media, apart from for the Maddie campaign, Kate said: 'We are aware of things that get said because people alert us to them. Our worry is for our children.'