Hillsborough
A Twitter user has been forced to defend himself after beign mistaken for former Sun editor kelvin MacKenzie. Reuters

A Twitter user mistaken for controversial former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie has been forced to correct online users after becoming a victim of online abuse over the Hillsborough disaster.

The Scottish man, with the account @kelvinmackenzie, was bombarded with malicious tweets from angry users as the Hillsborough disaster documents were released.

MacKenzie, 65, edited the Sun during the paper's controversial coverage of the crush at the Hillsborough football stadium on 15 April 1989, which killed 96 Liverpool fans.

In an issue published four days after the disaster, and headlined "The Truth", the Sun alleged that drunken Liverpool fans abused victims and police during the tragedy.

The article triggered a Mersyside-wide boycott of the paper, which continues to this day.

One angry user wrote: "Kelvin Mackenzie will never be forgiven!! #DontBuyTheSun #JFT96 #YNWA"

Another said: "Just to show what a 'orrible coward Kelvin McKenzie is, he's now pretending to be a younger different @kelvinmackenzie on twitter"

Mackenzie's namesake attempted to clear his name with several posts before users realised it was a case of mistaken identity.

He told users: "My Twitter is going mental because of people thinking I'm the sun editor and getting rakes of abuse! I'm the good guy.."

After 23 years, an independent report based on previously unseen documents about the tragedy has concluded that the police had failed to do enough and had also tried to blame Liverpool fans.

MacKenzie, who previously stood by his decision to run the headline, has now offered a public apology to the people of Liverpool for the misleading 'Truth' article.

"It has taken more than two decades, 400,000 documents and a two-year inquiry to discover to my horror that it would have been far more accurate had I written the headline The Lies rather than The Truth. I published in good faith and I am sorry that it was so wrong." He said.