A charity which claimed its Twitter account had been hacked to post abusive messages about author JK Rowling during the independence referendum campaign has closed down.
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) confirmed that the Dignity Project had applied to be officially wound up.
The Christian charity which promoted anti-poverty and educational work in Africa hit the headlines in June last year, when a Tweet from its account described the Harry Potter author as a 'bitch' for coming out in support of the No campaign.
Publishing an account about how she had agonised over her decision, Ms Rowling revealed that she had donated £1m to the Better Together campaign. The Dignity Project provoked an angry backlash when its official account tweeted: "What a #bitch, after we gave her shelter in our city when she was a single mum."
In an online disclaimer the charity later claimed its account had been hacked and denied responsibility for any Tweets. "As a charity we do not take any political stance and our opinion is people are free to donate to whoever they choose," the statement said.
OSCR said it would investigate the charity and the comments, while the Dignity Project, also known as the African Child Education Programme, announced online that it was 'under new management'.
However it was removed from the Scottish charity register five days ago and the regulator now says it is defunct. An OSCR spokesman said: "The charity applied to us to wind up and we granted our consent, so it has been removed from the register."
The Herald sought to speak to the Dignity Project, but the charity was not answering its phone and its website has been deleted while there have been no posts on its Twitter feed since September 17th.
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