Murdered teenager Jessie Wright has had her online memorial page hijacked by cyber bullies.Tributes to Jessie on social networking site Facebook have been accompanied by sick comments posted by people who often did not even know her.
Friends set up a memorial page, with over 1,188 fans, called ‘R.I.P. Jessie Wright, God Bless You’, for the 16-year-old shortly after her body was found on Thursday, March 21.
By Saturday, the site had been infiltrated with sick comments such as “s**t deserved it”. Other comments seen by Islington Now are too obscene to publish.
“Sick”
Paul Convery, councillor for Caledonian Ward where Jessie lived, said the comments were “sick”. “These seem to be from profiles that routinely post foul remarks on RIP Facebook sites,” he said. “They are just sick Facebook tourists.”
The people targeting Jessie’s group are also members of other pages for murdered teens. One is a member of seven such pages. Friends of Jessie have condemned the online bullies as “twisted, low lives”.
Caroline Connaughton posted on the group: “These people have just gone out of their way to be cruel… hopefully facebook will remove them. R.I.P Jessie.”
Power
Michael Berry, a clinical forensic psychologist and expert on stalking, said the online bullies may be doing it because it gives them power:
“They may know her, or know of her, or be 10,000 miles away. Some people just get a buzz out of inflicting sadistic pain on others.”
The news comes after the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre launched a campaign to get social network providers to provide a one click button, which allows children to get immediate police help if they are being abused online.
Vigil
Last night, Jessie’s friends and family came together for a candlelit vigil to honour her life.
In a tearful address to the gathering, one of Jessie’s friends said: “She was always smiling. She didn’t have a bad bone in her body. Us girls, we always had our ups and downs, but she always got through it, no matter what.”
Additional reporting by Soraya Kishtwari
