Mum of boy, 14, who may have died in TikTok challenge wins fight for new inquest

A mum has won a court fight to reopen the inquest into her son’s death to try and find out if it was linked to a social media challenge gone wrong.

Jools Sweeney, 14, died at home in Cheltenham in 2022.

There was a previous inquest in September that year, but it lasted only 23 minutes and called no live evidence before the coroner returned a narrative conclusion.

Speaking after the High Court ruling today, Jools’ mother, Ellen Roome, said: ‘For more than four years we have fought every single day for the truth about what happened to our beautiful son, Jools.

‘Today, the legal system has finally recognized that there are questions which deserve to be answered. This journey has broken us at times.

‘It has taken an enormous emotional toll on our family, but we could never stop. We fought not only for Jools, but for every family who deserves to know the truth about how their child died.

‘No parent should have to spend years battling for evidence that could explain the loss of their child.

‘Every bereaved family deserves to know that every possible avenue, including a child’s digital life, has been properly investigated.’

Ms Roome began a legal challenge against the senior coroner for Gloucestershire to have the conclusion quashed and the inquest re-opened.

She has also campaigned for ‘Jools’ Law’ – a right for parents to access their deceased child’s data without a court order – and wider changes to social media, which she described as ‘not safe’.

Ms Roome said digital checks should form part of the post-mortem and inquest process, similar to a toxicology report to look for drugs and alcohol.

Her lawyers told the High Court on Thursday that new evidence had come to light concerning the role of social media in Jools’ death.

They said a ‘number of lines of inquiry’ which were not pursued at the original inquest ‘bear directly upon TikTok’s platform and the data it holds’.

The coroner and TikTok did not oppose the bid to reopen the inquest.

At the end of the hearing in London, two senior judges quashed the conclusion and ordered a new inquest to take place at a later date.

Lord Justice Warby, sitting with Mrs Justice Heather Williams, said: ‘We have concluded that the application should be granted.’

He continued: ‘It is desirable in the interests of justice for a new inquest to be held.’

The judge said that it was ‘simply not possible to know at this stage whether the same conclusion will be reached after appropriate investigations’, and that it would be for the coroner conducting the new inquest to decide its scope.

But he added that it was ‘now clear that there are various potential lines of inquiry’ that had not previously been considered, many of which had become known because of the ‘tireless investigations undertaken by Ms Roome’.

Ms Roome, who was made an MBE last year for her campaigning for services to children’s online safety, wept as the judges handed down their ruling.

Her barrister, Harry Lambert, said in written submissions that the Attorney General gave her the go-ahead to proceed with her legal challenge in March, with Gloucestershire Police also reviewing its investigation into Jools’ death.

He said: ‘A considerable body of new evidence and a number of investigative insufficiencies have come to light, in particular concerning the role of social media, and of TikTok specifically, in the events leading to the deceased’s death.’

He also said that evidence from Jools’ TikTok data was ‘highly probative of overuse or addiction’.

But Mr Lambert continued that the re-opened inquest ‘could take many directions’ and that ‘several of the most significant lines of inquiry that were never pursued in 2022 have nothing to do with TikTok’.

He said that these included the possibility that Jools’ Instagram account was hacked or that conversations before his death took place on social media platforms other than TikTok.

Mr Lambert also said that a fraudulent Instagram account operated by an African crime gang contacted Jools shortly before his death, and that evidence from his phone found a ‘possible attempt at extortion or “sextortion”’.

He said: ‘Together, this material provides a much fuller evidential platform and paints a more comprehensive and potentially different picture of how the deceased came by his death.’

He added: ‘The applicant’s concern is simply that all of these matters be fully and fearlessly investigated, whatever the outcome.

‘She seeks only the truth about how her son died, wherever the evidence may lead.’

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