Message of vigilance from Sonia’s family is timely

SONIA Blount was brutally murdered by her exboyfriend Eric Locke.

Locke assumed a fake identity on Facebook and lured her to a hotel bedroom where he strangled and suffocated her to death. The mother-of-one was found in a room in the Plaza Hotel in Tallaght, Dublin, on February 16, 2014.

Locke was unanimously found guilty of her murder at the Central Criminal Court earlier this week and sentenced to life imprisonment by a judge.

She leaves behind a loving family and a young son, Jake, who talks about his mother every day.

The Blount family and friends responsibly used the public attention on the case to issue a timely warning to other women about using social media sites.

Her friend, Liz Gaffney, read out a statement on behalf of the family, saying the case was a lesson to be vigilant.

“A special word of warning to everyone using social media sites, we urge you to please be cautious and be aware,” Ms Gaffney said.

“It is so easy to set up false profiles. Sonia made an error of judgment and paid for this with her life.

“We would also like to thank the jury for the unanimous, timely decision and for seeing her murderer as the lying, manipulative person that he is.

“Sonia was an innocent, beautiful, kind, caring person and mother who is sadly missed by all of us who knew her and loved her,” she added.

Nothing will bring Sonia Blount back but her awful death is a stark reminder of the need to be cautious in dealing with strangers in any circumstances online.

The connectivity of the internet shouldn’t create a blind spot to the caution exercised in every other aspect of life.