A mother whose 17-year-old son took his own life after being bullied online has said Caroline Flack’s death has brought back her own loss with ‘enormous clarity’.
Lucy Alexander’s son Felix died when he stepped in front of a train near his home in Worcester in April 2016, after telling his parents he was going to school.
While appearing on This Morning Mrs Alexander, who helped launch a #BeKind campaign in 2017, said the former Love Island presenter’s death was ‘triggering’.
Lucy Alexander has said that Caroline Flack’s death has brought back the loss of her son Felix, 17, (pictured together) ‘with enormous clarity’. The teenager look his own life in Worcester in April 2016 after being bullied online
Speaking on the show Ruth Langsford asked the grieving parent if recent news had taken her back to Felix’s death.
Ms Alexander replied: ‘It’s amazing how triggering it can be, I feel brought back to that moment with enormous clarity, very quickly.
‘I feel so badly for Caroline’s family, I know exactly where they are now and it’s a really, really horrible place to be.’
The 40-year-old TV presenter was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington, London, by her father on Saturday.
An inquest into her death is due to open tomorrow morning at Poplar Coroner’s Court in London.
It is thought Ms Flack committed suicide after she learned her court case was going ahead and she was understood to be horrified by the prospect of a ‘show trial’.
The mother (left) became emotional as she discussed how Caroline Flack’s death had been ‘triggering’ and said she felt ‘so badly for Caroline’s family’. The presenter is pictured right
During the interview on This Morning, Ruth and Eamonn Holmes also discussed how Mrs Alexander had found strength to help others by working in anti-bullying.
Mrs Alexander explained how online trolling can ‘affect everybody’ no matter their background.
She said: ‘It affects everybody. People of all ages, all status’. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the public eye or not. We’ve been given a unique platform to voice these negative opinions of people and its snowballing…
‘Because of bullying Felix took his own life. He was made to feel really unworthy and miserable for many years. It affected him enormously, his mental health was really badly damaged.’
Despite much of Felix’s bullying happening while he was online, Mrs Alexander explained how making him come off social media wasn’t the easy answer.
She said: ‘Particularly with his age group, more so than with his older brother and sister, that [being online] was his sole way of communicating. There was little face to face, it was much more online.
Mrs Alexander (pictured on This Morning) explained how online trolling can ‘effect everybody’ no matter their background
‘So when I said “that’s it the iPad’s going” he’d say, “why do I get punished for something that’s been done to me?” It just excluded him further and meant he was less involved in life at school.’
Now working to help educate young people, Mrs Alexander said the key is early intervention and giving children the right tools.
She said: ‘We have to work with young people from when they get their first phone and give them strategies of keeping safe and interpreting content they’re going to see.
‘The genie is out of the bottle, we can’t put it back in, but we can educate how to use it safely and kindly early on. Then there’s more chance of adults using safely and kindly that way.’
Former detective Philip Grindell (right) was also on the show and said it can be difficult for websites and companies to spot ‘context related abuse’ on social media
Former detective Philip Grindell also appeared on the show and spoke about how it can be hard for social media companies to spot abuse.
He said: ‘A big challenge is lots of harm online is driven by context related abuse. And it is more difficult for companies to pick up abuse and trolling when context driven, they can’t pick it up by automation.
‘I also think legislation in the UK is poor. Terminology under the Communications Act says it has to be ‘grossly offensive’ and the threshold is quite high … There’s an issue.’
Mrs Alexander discussed the loss of her teenage son with the Daily Mail in 2018.
She said: ‘Felix took his own life in April 2016. He was just 17 and had been so badly damaged by years of torment, he couldn’t see a happy future.
‘My beautiful, smiley son had been hounded by bullies since primary school. It’s hard to know why or how it began. The only thing I can put my finger on is a silly playground squabble.
Pictured is Felix (ringed), with his parents Lucy (second left) and Ratan (centre) as well as older sister Charlotte (second right) and Ben (right)
‘His dad and I wouldn’t let him have the 18-rated video game Call Of Duty because we thought it was too violent.
‘Felix must have explained this to the other kids and they started teasing him over it. One called him a ‘p***y’.
‘But, quite honestly, it was one of many incidents too insignificant to put my finger on. It was death by 1,000 cuts.
‘Over the next few months, we realised he was always trying to impress. He tried being the class clown, or the whipping boy — anything to fit in. He’d say: ‘No one likes me as I am.’
‘We thought it would get better when he went to senior school, but it didn’t. Then, at 14, social media kicked in — particularly sites such as ask.fm — and the bullying became unstoppable.’
For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123, visit a local branch or go to www.samaritans.org.