The father of a girl told to commit suicide and to ‘do what Dolly did’ has been warned by police they may be unable to prosecute and catch bullies terrorising his daughter.
Katelyn Simpson was subjected to a barrage of online abuse via Snapchat after the tragic suicide of bullying victim Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett.
Her father Russell, from Darwin in the Northern Territory, has now claimed police say they are powerless to prevent her bullies or catch them.
Father Russell Simpson claimed police told him they were powerless to catch the culprits
Katelyn Simpson, 15, (pictured) was told to commit suicide like ‘Dolly did’ after tragic death of Dolly Everett
Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett was just 14-years-old when she killed herself following a long spell of bullying online
The Simpson family are friends with Dolly’s family and vile messages were sent to 15-year-old Katelyn via the social media app’s message platform.
‘Why don’t you just go cut your wrist until you bleed out, you’ll do everyone a favour. Go do what Dolly did, it should’ve been you not her,’ one of the horrific messages read.
Dolly, who was from Katherine in the Northern Territory, took her own life on January 3, after being ‘overwhelmed’ by cyber bullies.
But police have told Daily Mail Australia that Mr Simpson was told it would be ‘difficult’ for officers to track down who had actually sent the messages.
Vile messages were sent to 15-year-old Katelyn (right) over her appearance, wins on the rodeo circuit and other personal matters
A police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia no formal report had been lodged with detectives
A spokesman for NT Police said they had not been asked to carry out a formal investigation after Mr Simpson first met with police earlier this year.
They added: ‘Records show that a formal police report [to investigate] was not made at the time that Mr Simpson contacted police.
‘A formal police report has not been made since then.’
Mr Simpson believes the culprit targeting his daughter is someone jealous of his daughter’s success as a national rodeo champion.
Police said a formal report had never been lodged by Mr Simpson meaning they could not investigate further (pictured is Katelyn Simpson, his daughter)
‘We went to the police but there is actually nothing they can do,’ Mr Simpsons told Nine News.
‘The police they have been great. They sit you down and say this is where we are at. They say any good lawyer will get them off.
‘So, you can’t do anything. We can’t even publicly shame them because then we will end up in trouble.’
Mr Simpson said police told him they would be unable to prove who had physically written the message making it difficult to get a conviction.
The horrific message which the faceless bullies sent to Katelyn as part of a prolonged campaign of abuse
NT Police told Daily Mail Australia it has specialist officers working to investigate online exploitation of children and cyber offending.
The force said: ‘Social media offers challenges to Policing in a number of ways. This includes negating the physical isolation between a victim and offender as an impediment to ongoing interaction and offending.
‘Social media offers a platform enabling an individual to rapidly spread their thoughts or opinions to a vast number of people.
‘This has obvious implications with cyberbullying and related matters.’
One of the vile messages sent to Katelyn Simpson on the social media messaging app Snapchat
Even more worrying for the family, is that they think the messages could have been sent by the parents or grandparents of his daughter’s bullies.
He thinks the language in the messages suggested it was written by an adult and friends have told him of other conversations they had with the family he believes to be responsible, he told Nine.
He said that made it ‘even worse’ and ‘very sad’ that adults were involved.
But although Mr Simpson thinks he knows who his daughter’s tormentors are, he has not confronted them and since first going public about the issue, the bullying had stopped.
He said his daughter seemed to be coping well and was in a ‘happy spot’.
Katelyn Simpson is a national rodeo champion and her father believes the bullying has stemmed from jealousy about her success
Father Russell Simpson (left) said he had to do something after he was told about the extent of the bullying
Mr Simpson revealed the extent of his daughter’s bullying in a public post on Facebook in January.
She was subjected to bullying for three years but Mr Simpsons said he was only made aware when another parent phoned him.
He said Katelyn had kept things to herself and tried to deal with the bullies herself.
Mr Simpson previously told Daily Mail Australia he had been left
Other messages sent to Katelyn by the unknown ‘fake account’ made fun and attacked her appearance, called her rodeo victories ‘flukes’ and another said ‘stop telling everyone your a virgin, because no one believes it’.
NT Police says there are many resources it uses to help parents address cyberbullying.
For more information visit the Office of the eSafety Commissioner at the Think U Know program and ACORN.