A mum whose daughter died by suicide after being trolled online is now facing social media abuse for posting about her girl’s funeral.
Princess Dickson, 16, was bullied for two years by users on Tattle Life, a ‘gossip’ forum where people mock influencers. She died in February.
Mum Sophie-May Dickson, 32, shared photos and video from the funeral on Thursday, including one with her head against Princess’ coffin.
The content creator said: ‘The day I tucked my baby to sleep for the very last time. The hardest goodbye. How do you ever accept kissing your baby for the very last time?
‘I love you, princess. You are loved beyond belief. I’ll see you next in heaven girl.’
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Yet the post was met with backlash from social media users, who questioned why she was wearing such a ‘glamorous’ outfit.
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One said: ‘Fashion show 💩 it’s more about your look than respect for the dead one.’
Another Instagram user said: ‘How many takes to make it perfect? You know, for the clout?’
Some users criticised Sophie-May for posting the ‘private’ service to her nearly 28,000 followers and accused her of letting ‘vanity get a hold’ of her.
The abuse also reached Tattle Life, where users posted offensive remarks about Princess, blasted the ‘horrendous’ funeral and called the mum ‘twisted’.
Sophie-May responded to the criticism with a lengthy Instagram story yesterday, saying: ‘This was the last moment of me with my daughter. I had walked away from casket [sic] many times but it just didn’t feel right to me. Once I collected my belongings from where I sat.
‘My bag and my phone and my order of service booklet I just had to go back. I was ONLY IN THE MOMENT!’
She added that she hired photographers to cover the funeral so that she could remember the day.
Sophie-May said: ‘So when I saw this peice [sic] of footage along with the 100s of other beautiful pieces of footage, I absolutely adored that those moments were captured and I can always go back to these last moments.’
‘And yes I chose to share. So no. In that moment [it] wasn’t about future audience. I am just about to walk away from my baby for the very last time for the rest of my life.
‘I did not broadcast this for views. I saw the person who captured this beautiful moment share it and decided to share it myself.’
Sophie-May has been in the public eye since appearing on Blinging up Baby, a Channel 5 TV programme showing her childrens’ lavish lives.
She was originally the target of Tattle Life users, being the subject of more than 10,000 posts on the site.
But the trolls came for her daughter when Sophie-May stepped away from social media.
As well as making comments about her on Tattle Life, people created fake accounts to watch Princess’ TikToks and ridicule her appearance.
This took a toll on her mental health and school attendance.
Tattle Life users were posting offensive remarks about her after she died and blamed her mum for her death.
Sophie-May reported the abuse to the police but was told it was a civil matter.
Labour MPs wrote to Ofcom in February demanding the media regulator take ‘immediate and decisive’ action to shut Tattle Life down.
They said the comments amounted to ‘persistent online stalking and harassment of a child by adults’.
The letter added: ‘Those concerns explicitly warned that Princess was unable to cope with the abuse directed at her. Tragically, those warnings have now been realised.’
Users in one thread seen by Metro today distanced themselves from Sophie’s death.
One said: ‘How is Tattle to blame? If you’re gonna blame gossip then don’t have any gossip sites.
‘All that’s been done on here is document all the failings Sophie did to her children. If she didn’t fail her children.. why were they in care?’
The Coroner’s office is investigating the cause of Princess’s death.
Tattle Life declined to comment, saying the Coroner’s office should be ‘allowed to perform its duties’ before conclusions are drawn.
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