Bereaved families and survivor write to PM Andy Burnham to demand public inquiry into suicide grooming forum

A group of bereaved families and a survivor have written to the Prime Minister to demand a public inquiry into the repeated failures of the State to stop a suicide grooming forum linked to at least 164 UK deaths, but potentially many more.

The Families and Survivors to Prevent Online Suicide Harms group, supported by Molly Rose Foundation, is calling on Andy Burnham to launch a statutory public inquiry following Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal last year. They have also asked to meet with the Prime Minister to discuss their concerns.

Campaigners at Molly Rose Foundation say a public inquiry is urgently needed to learn lessons and ensure accountability for repeated failures to act on this preventable harm.

The group’s letter to the Prime Minister sets out that three government departments – the Department for Health and Social Care, the Home Office and DCMS – were issued with Prevention of Future Deaths reports from Coroners that raised relevant matters of concern 43 times. Overall, coroners raised concerns about either the substance or the forum with public bodies some 65 times.

The forum has previously been investigated and subsequently fined by Ofcom after campaigning by Molly Rose Foundation, but is still accessible in the UK and continues to be implicated in deaths across the country.

In recent months, bereaved families have seen multiple routes for justice and accountability denied:

• In July, Ofcom abandoned plans to seek a court order that would legally block the service from being available in the UK, just weeks after saying it would.
• In May, the Crown Prosecution Service announced it wouldn’t seek to extradite Kenneth Law, a Canadian who used the forum to sell poison to at least 79 UK nationals who went on to die by suicide.
• Earlier this year, the previous Government refused to grant a public inquiry, promising further action which then stalled when the Government was replaced.

In the letter, the group likens the State’s failure to block the forum to similar failures like Grenfell, Horizon and the Infected Blood scandal.

They write: “Multiple agencies have failed to act and we live with the consequences of those failures every day. We demand a full public inquiry; nothing less will honour our children, the survivors, or expose the failures that cost their lives.”

Andy Burrows, Chief Executive of Molly Rose Foundation, said: “In the past year, every meaningful avenue for justice has been systematically closed off to bereaved families. The State’s failures have directly contributed to the sheer scale of preventable harm we’ve seen, despite a flurry of warnings from families and survivors, as well as multiple coroners across the country.

“The evidence is undeniable, and yet this criminal, nihilistic and financially motivated suicide grooming forum is still active and directly responsible for appalling loss of life here in the UK. Andy Burnham was unflinching in his commitment to the Hillsborough families to seek justice and accountability. He must do the same for these families and survivors, making sure lessons are learned and that families are afforded the same sense of dignity and a commitment the Government is determined to finally make things right.”