Web troll posted vile comments about our dead daughter... then Facebook made it worse
A GRIEVING family criticised Facebook yesterday for letting an internet troll abuse the memory of their daughter.
The parents of olivia Burt, who was crushed to death while queueing outside a nightclub, said dealing with the social media giant as they sought to remove the vile posts had compounded their misery.
The broadside came as Paul Hind appeared in court to admit posting offensive material about the 20- year- old university student and three other young men and women.
using a false name, the jobless 38-yearold had called Miss Burt a sex worker on Facebook after her death in February.
He also defaced a picture of her and posted photos of terminally-ill children on her Facebook memorial page.
Nigel and Paula Burt, who attended the hearing before South East Northumberland magistrates, said: ‘The trolling of our wonderful daughter, olivia, is a desecration of her memory and character.
‘It has made both of us feel physically sick and caused us huge suffering. Her death is still very recent and causing us tremendous heartache as we struggle to come to terms with our loss.
‘The person who carried out the trolling can only be described as a sick sadist who knows that they are adding to our anguish and gets enjoyment from this.
‘Even though the Facebook posts have now gone, we keep expecting them to reappear on some other social media platform. This is causing us continuing anxiety and distress.
‘our dealings with Facebook have compounded our misery. They only tackle each individual issue and not the overall trolling. This is hopeless because as each offensive post and fake profile is removed, a new one appears within minutes.
‘The senior Facebook executives we contacted in our attempt to stop the trolling have a total disregard for us, as exemplified by the fact that, even now, they have not replied to our communications.’
An investigation into the tragedy outside the Missoula nightclub is yet to be completed and the Burts, from Hampshire, said they hoped those responsible would be held to account.
Their daughter suffered fatal head injuries from being trapped under a metal barrier outside the venue in Durham.
Hind, a former kitchen hand from Wark in Northumberland, admitted four separate offences of conveying false information which was indecent or grossly offensive. The counts related to four dead young people.
The court heard that he targeted an online tribute page for backpacker Hannah Witheridge, 23, who was murdered alongside a 24year-old British man on a beach on the island of Koh Tao, Thailand, in September 2014. He posted ‘ numerous deeply upsetting comments’ on social media seen by Hannah’s family.
other counts concerned crude and abusive comments relating to Joe Tilley, 24, a traveller who was found dead at the bottom of a waterfall in Colombia in May after an apparent fall; and Duncan Sim, 19, whose remains were found at West Sands in St Andrews in June.
Prosecutor James Long said Hind, who is single, claimed it was ‘ his form of attention seeking when he was bored’. ‘He enjoyed getting a reaction from some people. He said some people might have found it funny,’ the prosecutor said.
District Judge Kate Meek sent the case to Newcastle Crown Court for sentencing because the judge there will have greater powers. That hearing will take place on September 27.
Slamming Hind for his ‘repeated’ and ‘calculated’ actions, she told him: ‘Four families were suffering unbearable loss of their children and you imposed upon them an immeasurable degree of further pain, distress and suffering.’ outside court, Hind said he had mental health issues and was ‘highly intoxicated’ at the time of the offences.
He added: ‘I would like to apologise to the people involved but I think it would be a complete waste of time, I don’t think they would entertain me.
‘It’s unforgivable what I’ve have done. unfortunately I have made a big mistake. What is done is done and I am certainly not proud of what I have done. I am expecting a prison sentence.’
‘A sick sadist adding to our anguish’