Devastated mum vows to fight
The Telegraph is running this special news feature in a bid to bring the extent of cyberbullying to the attention of readers.
Deb Langshaw is caressing a small wooden box that sits on the coffee table in her lounge room; slowly and lovingly.
A look of utter desolation is across her face as tears, still bitter, stream down her cheeks.
‘‘This is all I have left of my baby girl and she matters, Amanda matters,’’ she said, every word being forced out, her voice catching, choking.
‘‘I won’t let her death be brushed under the mat, like all the other kids who have taken their lives because of online bullying, I can’t and won’t fail her again,’’ she said.
Deb’s daughter Amanda Grennan took her own life last year. Alone in her bedroom. Hounded by vicious, relentless, online bullying. She was just 14 years old. Her life had barely begun but in the end she must have felt even death was preferable to her living hell.
Three girls at her school had targeted Amanda after a broken relationship with a boy — and they taunted her, targeted her, mercilessly.
At 49 kg, they told her she was fat, they wished she was dead and she was a waste of space. This went on day and night for months.
Even the mother of one of the girls got involved and had been sending her abusive messages.
Amanda once told her friends ‘‘I don’t drink enough water to cry this many tears’’.
Yet through it all, Amanda hid the extent of her online torture from her mother because, Deb believes, she wouldn’t have wanted her to make a fuss.
‘‘She knew I would stand up for her, she knew I would be around banging on their doors,’’ she said.
The night Amanda took her life, Deb had already taken her phone to give her a break.
‘‘Amanda received a terrible message from one of the mothers but that message would have still gotten to Amanda on her school laptop,’’ Deb said.
‘‘The kids get a laptop on the first day of Year 7, how could I possibly stop her receiving messages? They can put controls in place to stop children accessing porn, surely they can develop some sort of technology to stop this happening?
‘‘There is no break for our kids, it’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week.’’
Deb is adamant she is not after revenge but she said there had to be some sort of punishment.
‘‘There has to be a consequence, it’s not bullying, it’s assault and abuse; stalking, and it is costing our children their lives,’’ she said.
‘‘It is killing our children — it killed my child — and something needs to be put in place as a deterrent.
‘‘I received a letter in early December from the coroner and it mentioned the three girls but said it was suicide from bullying. I requested they look into it further and I got another letter saying the same thing.
‘‘Amanda isn’t a number, she is my daughter. I am still her mum and I will fight for her and honour her memory, this is all about her.
‘‘Those girls took my little girl and I know it won’t bring her back, but what is going to stop them from doing it to someone else?’’
Deb hoped by speaking out she might just be able to save other families from going through her hell.
Amanda, she said, was a beautiful and intelligent girl with a wicked sense of humour.
Kind and caring, she never gave Deb an ounce of trouble.
‘‘I couldn’t have asked for a sweeter girl. She wouldn’t have been famous but she would have made a difference. We have lost our baby but the world has lost a good person and nothing can bring her back,’’ she said.
‘‘She was the most perfect child and I used to say to her ‘at some point Amanda you have to be naughty’, but she never was. If I told her to be home at five, she would be home at 4.55. I can remember rousing her once because she left her breakfast dishes out and she was devastated — she never wanted to upset anyone.
‘‘Amanda knew she was loved by us and even though her dad and I had separated, we remained on good terms. My heart breaks for Scott, he hasn’t been able to go back to work, he is a wreck, we all are.
‘‘Her brother Shaun never called her Amanda; from the moment she was born, he always called her my little girl.
‘‘People keep saying it will get better but it doesn’t, it’s just getting worse and worse. I miss her so much, I just want my little girl to come back home.’’
Deb is also grappling with debilitating guilt but she is also showing remarkable strength, sharing her devastating story.
‘‘Amanda never gave me a reason not to trust her. She wasn’t secretive or a liar but how could I not know, she took all this medication and was dead in her bedroom and how could I not know?
‘‘I have checked everything a million times and I can’t find a note.
‘‘I never got a final ‘I love you’, I always cleared all the messages on my phone and I have nothing, I just wish I had of saved her messages.
‘‘I just wish I had her.’’
❝ I won’t let her death be brushed under the mat, like all the other kids who have taken their lives because of online bullying, I can’t and won’t fail her again❞ — Deb Langshaw