Jay Slater's mum has revealed she had been sent thousands of messages, pictures and videos – including disgusting mock-ups of her son being tortured.
Vile trolls have targeted Debbie Duncan, 56, ever since her son disappeared on the island of Tenerife, Spain, on June 17. One horrific note includes a handwritten letter, criticising Debbie for organising her son’s funeral last week. Debbie has reported some messages to police – and has vowed to campaign for tougher laws on trolling.
The brave mum, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire said: "I don’t even have the words to describe how sick these individuals are. I have been terrorised by trolls. I have tried to block it out but you can’t. However, if I had paid attention to all of them I’d be in a padded cell."
Jay's remains were found in a ravine in the Rural de Teno park in Tenerife on July 15 after a four-week search. Hundreds of mourners attended Jay's funeral on Saturday, August 10.
Debbie spoke in an interviews alongside her older son Zak. She said she received a phone call from Jay’s friend Lucy Mae Law, 18, on the afternoon of June 17, telling her that he had gone missing. Jay’s dad Warren Slater, 58 – who later joined the desperate search – drove Debbie and Zak, 24, to Manchester Airport and they jetted to Tenerife.
As soon as she and Zak touched down in Tenerife, Debbie’s phone pinged with the first sick message about her son. Debbie said: “The first message said, ‘you'll never see your boy again - he owes me all this money’... And I thought, well, what is going on here? We've only just arrived in Tenerife - what the hell?"
The message was the first of thousands to which Debbie and her family were subjected, according to The Sun. Ghouls and conspiracy theorists flocked to social media sites including TikTok, Facebook and Instagram where they spread false information about the teen.
Debbie, a school assistant, said she heard and rent online some "absolutely unreal" sick rumours about her son, including that he had been chained up somewhere. However, each of these had no substance and Jay, an apprentice bricklayer, was eventually found dead near the Airbnb at which he stayed on June 16, following a gig.
“I wanted to believe that he'd been chained up - because at least that way I knew that he would still be breathing somewhere. I wanted to believe he'd been kidnapped and he was being held, because I thought, well, that would mean he's alive somewhere," Debbie continued.
Now, the mum has vowed to campaign for tougher action on trolling. She said "it is just wrong" how trolls can exploit tragedies like this, and make money on social media from loss.