Family's fight to ban suicide forums backed by Leeds MP
Joe Nihill took his own life after accessing online forums. Leeds East MP Richard Burgon is now supporting his family's campaign to ban them.
Last updated 11th Dec 2020
Leeds MP Richard Burgon is backing a family's calls for the closure of dangerous online suicide forums.
23-year-old Joe Nihill died on April 4 and had been in and out of hospital struggling with his mental health for months.
But despite getting help, he found himself on websites discussing methods to take your own life.
His family has led a campaign calling for these sites to be closed down or 'buried' in the internet to prevent others from accessing them.
Their petition has reached over 5,000 signatures and led to the Leeds East MP tabling a motion in parliament. It calls for the government to act to close these forums and increase funding for mental health support.
Mr Burgon said: "If there was a book shop in Leeds city centre which sold books discussing methods of suicide there would be outrage.
"And rightly so. Well the internet is just an extension of that, which is why it is vital to get these sites closed down.
"More and more people are becoming aware of this and there is a determination from people from different political parties to secure the change that's needed on this."
Joe's family believe he could still be with them had he not come across these dangerous websites.
His mum Catherine said: "He was the life and soul of the party, always happy and joking around.
"But he had a bit of a tough time. Both his grandparents died and then his dad in 2018. He had dips, but he was never suicidal until January this year."
Following Joe’s inquest in September, senior coroner Kevin McGloughlin wrote to Health Secretary Matt Hancock in a “preventing future deaths” report to warn the websites “may be breaking the criminal law by assisting suicide”.
He said consideration should be given to blocking these sites in the UK as they pose a “foreseeable risk” that others could be “drawn into deteriorating cycles of discussing methods of ending their lives” if kept online.
Sister-in-law Melanie Saville set up the petition after vowing to fight for justice after Joe's death.
She said: "He asked us to carry on fighting for him. He said please close the website down to stop other people from using it.
"Even in his last thoughts he was still caring about other people. That's what's pushed us to do this.
"He'd love that we're fighting for him. And that hopefully we're stopping someone else from taking their life. We're not going to stop."