Father of two-year-old ends life with fatal dose of prescription pills after being abused on Facebook
The family of a man who took the drastic step of ending his life after receiving horrific abuse online has called for stricter social media moderation to prevent such deaths in the future.
27-year-old Kenny Gregg, a chef from Dundonald, Northern Ireland, committed suicide on January 3, 2019, by consuming a deadly cocktail of his mother's painkillers. He leaves behind a two-year-old daughter, Esme, according to the Sun Online,
The night before his death, he told his mother Ann that he loved her. Just before 4 am that same morning, he sent text messages to both his younger sister, Carolyn, and his ex-girlfriend, Lindsay Greer, telling them that he loved them.
He then proceeded to fatally overdose himself by swallowing his mother's prescription painkillers and was found later that morning by Ann. She started shaking him and tried to rouse him, but became "frantic" after she noticed that his lips were blue.
After trying CPR on him for five minutes, she ran out into the street screaming for help, and when paramedics arrived at their residence, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Carolyn said Gregg was suffering from depression and had gone through a "bad period" from July 2018, and that she and the family believe he committed suicide because there were things written about him online that "he couldn't deal with."
She revealed that there was one post in particular which spouted a lot of hate against her brother and garnered traction in the day prior to his death that was responsible for him deciding to end his life.
"There were more than 40 horrible comments under this post, all saying what an awful person Kenny was," she said, adding, "He felt like his reputation was in tatters."
"If it wasn’t for those comments on Facebook, we truly believe that Kenny would still be alive today," she insisted. "Instead, his two-year-old daughter Esme has been left without a father."
Carolyn said the family found out about the comments and the post on the day after his death after someone posted on Facebook that "he got what he deserved."
Now, in a bid to prevent further such deaths, Carolyn has set up a petition to call for stricter social media moderation. "My brother was only 27 at the time and had a gorgeous daughter who he has left behind," she wrote. "His family loved and still love him unconditionally, but unfortunately he thought this was the only way to escape."
"My brother was targeted over social media. With suicide being rife in Northern Ireland and all over the world I am taking a stand against it. I would like this petition to get enough signatures to put in front of our government to put a stop to people being targeted on the internet and social media."
"I would like our government to make a law against this, so people can not get away with making somebody feel this low that taking their life is the outcome. And that something can be done about this quickly before we lose more lives."