Facebook criticised for allowing Jastine murderer to have public memorial page
FACEBOOK has been criticised for allowing a public memorial page to be created for Jastine Valdez’s murderer, Mark Hennessy.
Outreach Ireland – which has been assisting the family of the 24-year-old Filipino student since she was abducted and killed in May – wants the social networking firm to implement a policy preventing killers being publicly memorialised.
The non-profit organisation told the Irish Mail on Sunday last night that the pain inflicted by Hennessy ‘will last for many generations and every time his name is mentioned or heard it brings this pain to the surface again for those directly and indirectly affected’.
Hennessy had his Facebook page memorialised recently. This is where a deceased person’s page is turned into a venue for family and friends to share memories. The page is open to the public.
In a statement to the MoS, Outreach Ireland said: ‘We respect that everyone has the right to grieve after the loss of a significant person in their lives. We acknowledge the Hennessy family are also grieving. We are aware that Facebook has a policy in relation to either removing or memorialising the Facebook page of a deceased relative; we are also aware that it is a relative of the deceased that would make this decision.
‘But Outreach Ireland feels that it would be more appropriate for any memorial for Mark Hennessy to be private and not posted on a public forum. While Facebook will always have controversial content, we feel there should be a policy to prevent individuals like this from being publicly memorialised.’
Facebook failed to respond when asked if it had any policy in relation to memorialising criminals on its social networking site.
Meanwhile, a court heard this week that criminal proceedings are being considered against the armed garda who shot Hennessy, 40, at Cherrywood Business Park in south Dublin, on May 20 after he had abducted and killed Jastine as she was walking home in Wicklow.