Angela FergusonNorth West
The mother of Jay Slater has said online trolls accused her of murdering the missing 19-year-old at the height of the social media frenzy around his disappearance.
Debbie Duncan, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, said misinformation during the search for Mr Slater in Tenerife last year had taken a huge toll on her family.
She said she wanted to see a law introduced to crackdown on speculation during missing person searches, and has the backing of her local MP Sarah Smith.
Mr Slater’s body was discovered in a ravine on the island on 15 July, following a 29-day search that made headlines around the world.
Mrs Duncan told Breakfast that “there was a different story every day” after he disappeared, and “we didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t real”.
“When the facts were out there people didn’t want to believe the truth and still, to this day, they are just talking rubbish really,” she said.
Hyndburn Labour MP Smith said: “It is entirely wrong that people can continue to speculate, with no end date, about what’s happened in these incredibly tragic circumstances, with no consideration of how that is impacting on those that have lost a loved one.”
She said “these people are moving from family to family causing them an absolute living hell”.
Lancashire coroner Dr James Adeley concluded that Jay Slater died an accidental death without third-party influence at an inquest held in July.
Debbie Duncan is featured in a Channel 4 documentary about her son, The Disappearance of Jay Slater, which will be shown on Sunday.
Social media platforms told the they would remove misinformation that was likely to contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm or interference.
YouTube said certain types of misleading and deceptive content with serious risk of harm were not allowed.
TikTok said it did not allow misinformation on its platform.
