Ask.fm 'refused to help police in bullying probe'

Social networking site ask.fm was today accused of failing to co-operate with a police investigation into online bullying six months before 14-year-old Hannah Smith killed herself.

The mother of an earlier victim says her 15-year-old daughter contemplated suicide after being bombarded with “horrifying” messages from an anonymous user.

But when the mother contacted police, she claims the Latvian-based site refused to respond to requests for information. The woman, from Peterborough, discovered the messages after confiscating her daughter’s phone as a punishment.

She said: “It was absolutely horrifying. It was clearly someone she knew because they were making comments that only friends and family know.

“They were telling her to cut herself and ‘do it properly so it counts’. They also said she should hang herself.”

The teenager began self-harming and writing messages in her diary about suicide and feeling “worthless”.

Her mother believes that if the website had taken action when she first alerted them, there may have been safeguards in place that could have prevented the suicide of Hannah this month. Ask.fm failed to respond to Evening Standard queries regarding the mother’s claims.

In another twist, ask.fm said Hannah sent most of the abuse herself. Her father David Smith, from Lutterworth, Leicestershire, said: “Ask.fm is covering its own back by discrediting Hannah. It’s disgusting. If Hannah did do some of it herself, it just shows how desperate she was.”