Molly Russell: Friend of 14-year-old who died from self-harm speaks out over Online Safety Bill
Davine Lee still has the birthday present she bought for her friend Molly five years ago, an unwrapped box containing a hoodie featuring her favourite TV show, that remains sitting untouched at home.
She learned of her friend’s death, at the age of 14, after seeing her empty chair at school and wondering where she might be.
Hearing the news, nothing made sense.
Warning: Some readers may find the content in this story distressing.
Molly Russell, a seemingly happy teenager from Harrow, northwest London, was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017, just a day after rehearsing with Davine for a show she had been picked to play a lead role in.
It later emerged she had viewed masses of content related to suicide, depression and anxiety online.
In a landmark ruling at an inquest in September, a coroner ruled she died not from suicide, but from “an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”.
Dealing with the death of a friend in this way, especially at such a young age, is a particularly complex form of grief to process.
“To have to lose a friend at that age, it’s scarring,” Davine quietly explains. “Losing Molly… it’s something we won’t ever be able to forget or entirely move on from…
“I’ve still got her birthday present from 2017 – it would have been her 15th birthday, and of course she never made it to that birthday. That present still sits in my room, I’m just really not sure what to do with it. I obviously can’t give it to her but it feels in some way like I can still hold on to her through that.”
With permission from the Russell family, this is Davine’s first media interview, speaking exclusively to Sky News. Now 20 and at university, she says she was moved to speak publicly for the first time to highlight the importance of bringing the Online Safety Bill back before parliament. Reliving that time, she hopes, might prompt anyone struggling to see how much they would be missed.
“It was shocking to see that it was that bad,” says Davine, referring to the graphic material that was shown at Molly’s inquest. “I want people to know that what happened to Molly isn’t an isolated event and the content that she was being pushed, it still exists.”
‘Poor mental health can hide almost in plain sight’
Davine, now 20, wants social media companies to be held responsible for harmful content
Molly and Davine had been friends since they started secondary school together and shared a love of singing and musicals. They starred together in school productions of Les Miserables and Beauty And The Beast.
“[Molly] had just been given like one of the lead roles for the show we were doing that year… she was still doing the things she loved… either depression or poor mental health can hide almost in plain sight in that sense,” says Davine.
Recalling the horrific day that she and her school friends were told what had happened, she remembers the teachers ushering them all into a room. Then came the news that Molly had died.
“My first thought was like, ‘no’. It was like an instant sense of doubt, like, ‘no, Molly wouldn’t’. It just didn’t even make sense.”
Davine says she was told the news with other students. They were all in tears. “And that’s a sound I can’t forget, the sound of that many children just in such emotion.
“To attend a funeral at that age for someone who is a friend… we were just trying to get through each day.”
The coroner’s ruling: How content ‘romanticised’ self-harm
Molly’s family would later learn that alone in her room, social media algorithms had been feeding her a weight of disturbing content.
The coroner at her inquest ruled the content she had viewed “romanticised” self-harm, “normalised” her depression, and that some content “discouraged” the teenager from seeking “help” – ultimately contributing to her death.
Davine wants to highlight that Molly was not an isolated case, and that young people being drawn into looking at dark content on social media is a huge and damaging issue.
On Instagram, many of the hashtags Molly searched for have now been blocked. However, Sky News’ data and forensics unit found that while these blocks have been made and some content removed, the autofill device or misspellings can still lead users to some content, which Molly viewed; this was shown to her inquest but is too distressing to publish here.
Read more:
The digital trail that sheds light on the final months of Molly Russell’s life
‘No one is immune from such tragedy’
Social media ‘almost impossible to keep track of’
A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Instagram, responded to Sky News to say the company is committed to protecting young people.
“We’ve already been working on many of the recommendations outlined in [the coroner’s] report, including new parental supervision tools that let parents see who their teens follow and limit their time on Instagram,” the spokesperson said.
“We also automatically set teens’ accounts to private when they join, nudge them towards different content if they’ve been scrolling on the same topic for some time and have controls designed to limit the types of content teens see.
“We don’t allow content that promotes suicide or self-harm, and we find 98% of the content we take action on before it’s reported to us. We’ll continue working hard, in collaboration with experts, teens and parents, so we can keep improving.”
‘I felt so unwell I couldn’t work’: Former social media moderator speaks anonymously
Sky News has spoken anonymously to a former social media moderator who described managing harmful content on social media platforms as “an impossible task”.
Working for one of the world’s leading social media companies for a year during the pandemic, her job was to carry out a secondary viewing of content that had been flagged as potentially problematic, including posts that could be “extremely violent, homophobic”, or even show paedophilia.
“But there was probably one video in particular that affected me the most,” she said. This was footage of someone taking their own life.
She said she would watch and tag at least 1,000 videos a day. “It more just upset you about the world – seeing so much, sorry to say it, s**t, really. Things that people would do to themselves or others, it gives you a lack of belief in the world, really.”
After a year, she says that mentally and physically she could not carry on. “I felt so unwell that I literally couldn’t work, and I had to call my GP to advise me not to do it anymore.
“The effect it had on me the most was the sleep. I couldn’t sleep because I was so stressed. I was dreaming about some of the videos I could have incorrectly tagged.
“I won’t go into personally exactly what happened, but it wasn’t far off from Molly [Russell]. I can recognise feelings in how I felt seeing all of this content coming at me.”
The enormity of the task of policing all the content was just too much, she says. “The system there was just chaos… no one really knew what was happening.”
“We’re just a lot of young [people], like a lot of [people who have] just finished their degree… sat there trying to figure out how to judge all this content with no legal background.”
The rise of potentially harmful online content
Research by mental health charity Young Minds shared exclusively with Sky News suggests disturbing content is a growing problem.
It found that more than a fifth (22%) of young people are automatically shown distressing content by social media platforms, based on their previous online activity, at least once a week.
Nearly all young people (89%) who have had mental health problems said social media helps drive harmful behaviours, and more than half (52%) of that group said they had sought out content which they knew might make them distressed or uncomfortable.
The government has been accused of dragging its feet when it comes to introducing legislation to regulate social media firms but now, after years of delay, the online safety bill is back before parliament next week – proposing fines for tech companies of up to 10 % of their global turnover if they fail to protect users from harmful content – and criminalising posts that encourage self-harm.
But critics such as Baroness Claire Fox want the bill to be scrapped.
“The danger is that we – on the back of a very emotional response to something like the tragedy of Molly Russell – bring in a piece of legislation that doesn’t just protect children but actually infantilises adults and treats them like children,” she told Sky News. “And if you’re a free speech campaigner, as I am, this bill is a major, serious censorship tool.”
To those campaigning for better protections against potentially dangerous social media algorithms, Molly’s case embodies the horrific consequences of doing nothing.
The long-term impact and the ‘crisis’ in children’s mental health
Pic: Russell family
Olly Parker, from Young Minds, says: “I’m kind of a researcher in this field, but I’m also a father as well and it absolutely terrifies me.
“I don’t think we’re really going to see what the long-term impacts of this are maybe until 10, 15 years down the line. But one thing we are seeing is a real crisis in children in young people’s mental health. So every month right now we see record numbers of young people being referred to their GPs and doctors for more mental health support.”
When the online safety bill returns to parliament, Molly Russell’s friends and family hope it will be the first step towards holding big tech responsible for the content on their platforms.
Read more: Why the online safety bill is proving so controversial
‘Why are you doing this?’ – heated exchange at inquest
Child psychiatrist ‘did not sleep well’ after viewing content
“It’s big news that they now want to criminalise harmful content and anyone responsible for that but at the same time it does feel like it’s been an awfully long journey,” says Davine. “But I think it’s good to appreciate that we’re here now.”
But while it is something to place hope in, it can never bring back Molly.
“She was so loved by all of us,” Davine says. “I think she genuinely believed we would be better off without her… I think if she saw how much pain we were going through, I don’t think she would have made that choice.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org. Alternatively, letters can be mailed to: Freepost SAMARITANS LETTERS
Entertainment
Erin Brockovich: ‘My chiropractor saw mud on my stiletto – I said, I’ve been collecting dead frogs’
Erin Brockovich says a chance conversation about a muddy stiletto with her chiropractor led to the making of the award-winning film about her life.
The climate activist, who was played by Julia Roberts in the movie, told Sky News: “My girlfriend, who was a chiropractor, was giving me a chiropractic adjustment and asked me why I had mud on my stilettos.
“I said, ‘Oh, I’ve been collecting dead frogs’. She goes, ‘What is wrong with you?’ So, I started telling her what I was doing.”
Then just a junior paralegal, Brockovich was in fact pulling together evidence that would see her emerge victorious from one of the largest cases of water contamination in US history in Hinkley, California.
Her hard work would see her win a record settlement from Pacific Gas & Electric Company – $333m (£254m) – but that was all still to come.
Little did Brockovich know, but her tale of a muddy stiletto would get back to actor Danny DeVito and his Jersey Films producing partner Michael Schamburg, and through them to the film’s director Steven Soderbergh.
Brockovich says Soderbergh was “wowed” by what he heard.
She says he realised her image “was something that Hollywood might be drawn to that I was never thinking of – the short skirt, the attitude, the big bust, the stilettos, the backcombed hair. Somehow, it came together.”
‘I was always going to be misunderstood’
Released in 2000, the powerful story of one woman’s fight for justice made Brockovich a household name, and the film won actress Julia Roberts an Oscar.
Now, 25 years on, Brockovich says she believes her legal victory was helped in part by an unlikely ally – her learning difficulty.
Julia Roberts and Russell Crowe win best actress and actor at
the 2001 Oscars. Pic: AP/Richard Drew
Brockovich says: “Had I not been dyslexic, I might have missed Hinkley.”
Recently named a global ambassador for charity Made By Dyslexia, she’s been aware of her learning differences since childhood and still struggles today.
She says “moments of low self-esteem” still “creep back in”, and she long ago accepted “I was always going to be misunderstood”.
But for Brockovich, recognising her dyslexic strengths while working in Hinkley proved a pivotal moment: “My observations are wickedly keen. I feel like a human radar some days… Things you might not see as a pattern, I recognise. There are things that intuitively, I absolutely know.
“It will take me some time in my visual patterns of what I’m seeing, how to organise that. And it was in Hinkley that that moment happened for me because it was so omnipresent [and] in my face. Everything that should have been normal was not.”
‘A huge perfect storm’
Brockovich paints a bleak picture of what she saw in the small town: “The trees were secreting poison, the cows were covered in tumours, the chickens had wry neck [a neurological condition that causes the head to tilt abnormally], the people were sick and unbeknown to them, I knew they were all having the exact same health patterns. To the green water, to the two-headed frog, all of that was just I was like on fire, like electricity going, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s going on out here?'”
She describes it as “a huge, perfect storm that came together for me in Hinkley”.
But a side effect of the movie – overnight global fame – wasn’t always easy to deal with.
Pic. Made By Dyslexia
Brockovich calls it “scary,” admitting, “when the film first came out the night of the premiere, I was literally shaking so bad, I was so overwhelmed, that Universal Studios said, ‘If we can’t get you to calm down, I think we need to take you home’. It was a lot”.
Brockovich says she kept grounded by staying focused on her work, her family and her three children.
With Hollywood not always renowned for its faithful adherence to fact, Brockovich says the film didn’t whitewash the facts.
“I think they really did a good job at pointing out our environmental issues. Hollywood can do that, they can tell a good story. And I’m glad it was not about fluff and glamour. I’m glad it was about a subject that oftentimes we don’t want to talk about. Water pollution, environmental damage. People being poisoned.”
‘Defend ourselves against environmental assaults’
While environmental awareness is now part of the daily conversation in a way it wasn’t a quarter of a century ago, the battle to protect the climate is far from over.
Just last month, Donald Trump laid out plans to slash over 30 climate and environmental regulations as part of an ongoing effort to boost US industries from coal to manufacturing and ramp up oil and minerals production.
In response, Brockovich says, “We’re not going to stop it, but we can defend against these environmental assaults.
“We can do better with infrastructure. We can do better on a lot of policy-making. I think there’s a moment here. We have to do that because the old coming into the new isn’t working.
“I’ve recognised the patterns for 30-plus years, we just keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, expecting a different result.
“For me, sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, just get your ego out of the way’. We have to accept that this might be something greater than us, but we can certainly defend ourselves and protect ourselves and prepare ourselves better so we can get through that storm.”
You can listen to Brockovich speaking about her dyslexia with Made By Dyslexia founder Kate Griggs on the first episode of the new season of the podcast Lessons In Dyslexic Thinking, wherever you get your podcasts.
The Menendez brothers’ bid for freedom through resentencing can continue with the hearing scheduled for Thursday, a judge has ruled.
Lyle, 57, and Erik, 54, received life sentences without the possibility of parole after being convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
Lyle was 21 at the time, Erik was 18.
Last year, Los Angeles district attorney George Gascon asked a judge to change the brothers’ sentence from life without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life. That would make them immediately eligible for parole because they committed the crime when they were younger than 26.
But Mr Gascon’s successor Nathan Hochman submitted a motion last month to withdraw the resentencing request, saying the brothers must fully acknowledge lies they told about the murder of their parents before he would support their release from prison.
Separately, Governor Gavin Newsom, who has the power to commute their sentences, has asked the parole board to consider whether the brothers would represent a public safety risk if released.
Anamaria Baralt, cousin of Erik and Lyle Menendez, hugs attorney Mark Geragos. Pic: AP
In light of Mr Hochman’s opposition, Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Michael Jesic ruled on Friday that the court can move forward with the hearing.
“Everything you argued today is absolutely fair game for the resentencing hearing next Thursday,” he said.
From prison, the brothers watched through a video link and could be seen in court seated next to each other in blue.
Speaking after the hearing, the brothers’ lawyer said: “Today is a good day. Justice won over politics.”
Prosecutors accused the brothers of killing their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance, although their defence team argued they acted out of self-defence after years of sexual abuse by their father.
The brothers were convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder. Pic: AP
The brothers have maintained their parents abused them since they were first charged with the murders.
A Netflix drama series and subsequent documentary about the brothers thrust them back into the spotlight last year, and led to renewed calls for their release – including from some members of their family.
Entertainment
Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch chief executive Mike Jeffries ‘unfit to stand trial due to dementia’, prosecutors and defence team say
Abercrombie & Fitch’s former chief executive is not fit to stand trial on sex trafficking charges as he is suffering from dementia, both prosecutors and his lawyers have said.
Mike Jeffries has Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia and the “residual effects of a traumatic brain injury”, his defence attorneys wrote in a letter filed at a federal court in Central Islip, New York.
The 80-year-old needs around-the-clock care, they added, citing evaluations by medical professionals.
Prosecutors and defence lawyers are calling for Jeffries to be placed in the custody of the federal bureau of prisons for up to four months. They say he should be admitted to hospital to have treatment that could allow his criminal case to proceed.
The business tycoon, who led fashion retailer A&F from 1992 to 2014, pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges in October, and was released on a $10m (£7.65m) bond.
A total of 15 men allege they were induced by “force, fraud and coercion” to engage in drug-fuelled sex parties.
Prosecutors have accused Jeffries, his partner Matthew Smith, and the couple’s alleged “recruiter” James Jacobson, of luring men to parties in New York City, the Hamptons and other locations, by dangling the prospect of modelling for A&F advertisements.
Smith and Jacobson have also pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
‘Progressive and incurable’
In their latest letter on Jeffries’ health, his defence lawyers said at least four medical professionals had concluded his cognitive issues are “progressive and incurable”, and that he will not “regain his competency and cannot be restored to competency in the future”.
These issues “significantly impair” his ability to understand the charges against him, they wrote.
Jeffries’ partner Matthew Smith, pictured outside the court in December, has also pleaded not guilty. Pic: AP
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Tech executive and family die after helicopter crashes in New York
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“The progressive nature of his neurocognitive disorder ensures continued decline over time, further diminishing his already limited functional capacity,” said Dr Alexander Bardey, a forensic psychiatrist, and Dr Cheryl Paradis, a forensic psychologist, following evaluations made in December.
“It is, therefore, our professional opinion, within a reasonable degree of psychological and psychiatric certainty, that Mr Jeffries is not competent to proceed in the current case and cannot be restored to competency in the future.”
Jeffries left A&F in 2014 after leading the company for more than two decades, taking the retailer from a hunting and outdoor goods store founded in 1892 to a fixture of early 2000s fashion.
His lawyers did not immediately respond to requests by the Associated Press news agency for comment. The US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York declined to comment.
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