Examination of Witness (Question Numbers
280-299)
MR TIM
FULLER
19 MARCH 2009
Q280 Mr Hall: You had the initial
impact of the coroner releasing the details of your daughter's
death and the press clamour. You have advised the Committee that
there were subsequent repeat reporting of the circumstances and
the way the Daily Express treated the story. We know that
you made a complaint to the PCC and they upheld the complaint
and you received an apology. Would you say a few words for the
Committee about how the reporting affected you and your family?
Mr Fuller: We accepted that people
would get to know about it. I tend to be quite a realistic person.
From the point of view of the fact this Bridgend saga, if I can
call it that, had been going on for a while was public interest,
we could not get away from the fact that it would be reported.
We knew we would have to take some distress from that. I think
the way it came across was quite intrusive. Are you familiar with
the Daily Express article? Would it be of any help if I
passed that out? I have here the letter I wrote to Mr Abell and
the apology as it appears on the internet—it is not a direct
apology to myself, just the resolution—and the strips on
the front page article from the Daily Express. As we started
to read through some of the reports, there was one close friend
of Angeline who thought she was speaking to the police when in
fact she was speaking to a reporter. She was quoted giving information
about the family, her stepsisters, also personal information about
mental health issues that she had and that was part of my complaint.
A doctor would not divulge that sort of information so no way
should that have been on the front page of the newspaper.
Q281 Chairman: When you say she thought
she was talking to the police, was that because the person made
out they were police?
Mr Fuller: I could not say but
for whatever reason she felt she was giving information to the
police. She may not have been deliberately misled but maybe if
someone said "We are investigating the situation" she
probably would have thought it was official. I made a few points
that maybe I could raise today. When the reporter quotes the words
of somebody else, does that take the responsibility off the reporter
for saying those things? I feel that it should not but I feel
it did in this instance. If I can give an example, in the article,
and in the response as well, from the Daily Express they
say that they did not give specific details of the method used
and they are allowed to say that she was found hanging and that
was the nature of her death. They said they gave no more details
about how that happened but within the article they quoted the
mother of the previous victim who actually described that they
found him hanging and he had used his dressing gown cord and they
found him hanging from the framework of a built-in wardrobe they
were having constructed which to me is quite specific. This other
lady may well have said that in conversation. Sometimes when you
are talking to someone informally you do give information but
I do feel that should have been edited. That sort of detail did
not need to be there. It was about somebody else. I do not know
whether Angeline would have read that information printed beforehand
but Angeline too used a dressing gown cord so we just have this
thought. I do believe that some of these youngsters were influenced
by the publicity, not of the minute detail but the method. A big
question has been asked why all bar one of the victims used hanging
as their form of death. The question is why, because people who
commit suicide or are desperate, in my view, go through a process
of thinking how shall I do it; is it going to hurt; will I suffer.
There can be a desperate moment and I am sure all of them suffered
that desperate moment where you do not care what you do and it
just happens but the questions other people are asking is why
did they all choose this method. Angeline was reported as number
14. How many do you need to go down the line saying they hanged
themselves, they hanged themselves, they hanged themselves? If
somebody is thinking "I want help, what do I do" is
it not known to be the way to do it? I notice articles more recently
have said harmed themselves. Somebody was rushed to hospital and
died as a consequence of harming themselves. You think they have
harmed themselves, what did they do? You are none the wiser whether
they cut themselves, took an overdose, tried to hang themselves
or what. To me personally I feel that is as far as it should go
into these instances. If you want to say it is self-harm, it does
not give any clues to anybody else as to what happened. If somebody
is in a vulnerable situation, mentally unbalanced, they have got
problems, suicidal tendencies, they are going to be thinking about
what to do. As I said, Angeline was fairly new to Bridgend but
she had friends. If she is reading that this is how it is done,
it obviously succeeds because they died, it was reported on; they
got the publicity. Whether the memorial pages on the internet
have any bearing it is not for me to say. They are there. Various
people have views on that.
Q282 Chairman: One of the things
we have heard, which is certainly distressing to some families
in Bridgend, was the fact that not only did they have to cope
with the press coverage immediately after the suicide occurred
but it kept coming back because every time another one occurred
all the pictures of the previous people who have taken their own
life were reproduced. Just as you were trying to come to terms
with it suddenly the whole thing is back seeing the pictures again
in the newspapers.
Mr Fuller: That is right. I am
grateful for the work that has been done to get rid of those pictures
and stop that happening. Obviously it is an ongoing situation.
There is talk of suicide clusters and so forth. It is not for
me to say how these things exist and what the mechanics are but
this article in the Daily Express again at the end listed
the names of all the others so far. We did not have the picture
gallery in that article. One big concern we had was my eldest
son is eight; he was seven at the time. We brought him home from
school and somebody else had my other two children at the time.
We sat him down and said what had happened, that she was poorly.
She had mental health problems to some degree. We do not know
all the circumstances that caused it; the inquest is still ongoing.
We wanted to help him deal with that situation. The big fear to
us was that it was in the news. We kept him away from the television
and newspapers for week or so while this the story was running
its course but whenever another incident happened in Bridgend
not only did we have the repercussion of the whole thing being
replayed with all the names and pictures but there was the idea
of what if this pops up on the screen or if there is a newspaper
laying around and one of the children see it. In time they will
come to know what happened and understand and deal with it in
their own way but you cannot shield them from something that keeps
coming up like that. I believe some work has been done. Those
pictures have gone now. That is very distressing and I feel quite
indignant that was allowed to go on. There did not seem to be
any sensitivity there for the purpose of the report. Of course
it adds to the impact of the article and maybe it would to someone
who was detached from the family.
Q283 Chairman: The picture of your
daughter that did appear, how did the newspapers come by that?
Mr Fuller: I do not know. It is
interesting that the same picture seems to appear in both of the
newspapers. I think overall there are only two pictures. The third
one appeared later on.
Q284 Chairman: Had you seen it before?
Mr Fuller: I had not. I had not
seen Angeline for quite a while. It was a picture with her boyfriend
Joel. I would imagine that somebody has given a picture or it
could have been lifted from an internet site. It was very widely
circulated. I was surprised that all the various different newspapers
got the same picture which makes me feel that it was perhaps taken
from somewhere rather than given to a reporter.
Q285 Chairman: Was she on a social
networking site?
Mr Fuller: I believe she was on
three: Bebo, Facebook and Myspace. One had not been used for some
time but Myspace she was using regularly. I used to keep an eye
on it in a Dad kind of way to see what was on the front page.
There is a little bit where you can say what your mood is with
a photograph and things like that knowing that she had been struggling.
Q286 Chairman: To that extent her
being on the social network site actually helped you.
Mr Fuller: Up to a stage. You
may be aware that you can shut down correspondence and hide it
to selected friends on the internet site. At one stage it was
open so I was able to see who she was corresponding with and the
kind of conversations that were going on, the sort of intrusive
things that Dads do. Then it shut down and went private sometime
before this happened so all I could see was the little bit you
fill in with what mood you are in, snippets that are made public
to everybody and a photograph. I could see she was drinking, that
was obvious from the photograph she put on there. I would say
the photographs that were used were not complimentary. They were
not ones we would have chosen to give if we were asked. Because
they were used in so many different arenas I do not know where
it came from but I get the feeling if everybody has the same photograph
it was not given by one person to one reporter.
Q287 Chairman: When you say it was
not the one you would have chosen if asked, would you have been
willing to provide a photograph, given there were going to be
photographs that would appear, that you would like to have seen?
Mr Fuller: If we had been offered
a process perhaps rather than faced with the media as an entity,
if there was a channel through the police with one person perhaps
with the family liaison. My sister had correspondence with the
press when her son died unfortunately. It was two years before.
He was 18 on his way to college and died in a car crash so a totally
different set of circumstances. She had dealings with the press
managed by the police family liaison officer and she was able
to vet all the articles that came out from the local press. She
chose the photographs and all this kind of thing and it was controlled.
As a result she ended up working with a police charity helping
others who have been in similar situations and lost children in
road accidents. We were never given that opportunity. We knew
because of the Bridgend situation this was going to get headlines.
It could not help but hit the headlines. I am not daft enough
to think that I could put my head above the trenches and speak
to one. In fact it was said to me when I suggested would it help
to perhaps give my views on what could be done to someone in the
media I was cautioned that if you make it known that I am willing
to speak they cannot then say to other members of the media do
not speak to him. It would not be fair. I had to do an all or
nothing approach. It would perhaps be nice to have a controlled
report knowing that there was a need to report this in the context
of everything else. If it had happened in her home town of Shrewsbury
it probably would have been contained in the local newspaper but
because it was Bridgend it had to go a lot wider and that is why
we lost control. If we were still in the Shropshire area we probably
would have had a call personally from the Shropshire Star.
That is how it would have worked.
Q288 Chairman: It is an interesting
thought. Do you think that there could be an extension of the
role of the PCC, that they might actually offer a service to people
who suddenly find themselves having to deal with the media having
never had experience and providing advice about what they should
provide, what their rights are in saying no? Do you think that
would be helpful?
Mr Fuller: Yes, I think so. Basically
the advice we got was through the coroner and the police. Sometime
later the PCC started after this meeting was held in Bridgend
with the various parents. You do feel that you are suddenly dealing
with an unknown entity and you do not have any time to think about
it. The only way I could deal with it was to sit outside the police
station, before I started my journey back home, phoning work colleagues
and family friends saying that I have something terrible to tell,
stop stirring the dinner. It is the end of the day and I have
to tell you something horrible but I need to tell you now because
you might see it on the evening news. I was not given any direction
apart from they are up at the house, if you do not want to get
involved do not go up there. As I say, we started surfing the
internet to see what the newspapers were about to publish.
Q289 Chairman: You did choose to
make a complaint against the newspaper. Were you satisfied with
the way that was handled and the outcome of the complaint?
Mr Fuller: I think I could have
pursued it a bit further. I have mentioned about the material
that was quoted which give more details which were unnecessary.
I was resigned to the fact that it happened. It was months ago,
people have probably forgotten about it apart from those involved
in the case. The cynical side of me says they have said sorry
but what is going to stop it happening again. They will slip up
and put something else on the front page. They will cross the
line and somebody will say they do not like it and they will say
sorry and go away. I did not feel I could achieve an awful lot
more. I was happy to say fair enough the flag has been raised.
Q290 Paul Farrelly: Was there a specific
thing that led you to complain and say enough is enough?
Mr Fuller: Yes. Originally I was
not going to complain and I was going to let it go. This is what
happens when you get printed and we are not happy about it but
when the meeting was called with the PCC I thought I could contribute
something here. I know a lot of people have been affected by this
media publicity. I was concerned that this friend of Angeline's
had mentioned that she had tried to commit suicide twice before
and she suffered from depression and that was included in the
article. It was also included in bold the quotation half-way through
the script, which you will see it on the print-out that comes
around, that she tried to commit suicide twice before. To me that
is personal information. They also published that her boyfriend
she was living with was being treated for stress and anxiety and
was unemployed which I felt very strongly about from a number
of angles. That is personal information they had no right to give.
Also he lived in a small community and, first, he has to get over
Angeline's death, he found her there. How does anybody deal with
that? He has to rebuild his life and he is looking for work or
whatever to stabilise himself in that area but everybody has read
in the newspaper he suffers from anxiety and depression. It could
be a negative side to his character.
Q291 Paul Farrelly: Did inaccuracy
play any part in your decision to go the Press Complaints Commission?
Mr Fuller: Yes, because it was
on the front page and the headline actually said "internet
cult death number 14". I did feel strongly about that because
in all the other cases it had been established there was a question
raised quite early on because these individuals had got social
websites, they had put their profiles on there, one or two of
them from Bridgend chatted to each other, surprise, surprise,
that maybe they were linked and that is why they followed this
course but the coroner and the police had on a number of occasions
said they were convinced this was not behind it and that they
were all individual cases. They reported Angeline had only been
in Bridgend for a couple of years at most. I think it was in the
same article the police had not made any connection between this
and the other victims. Why put on the front page there is an internet
cult situation? I looked up the definition of the word "cult"
so I was not making stories in my own head. It gives the impression
that individuals are in a little community of their own, perhaps
talking about how they can take their life and get this glorification
on the website which was not the case. It was definitely a question.
I am quite happy to accept that there was a question mark over
whether any of this was fed by association on the internet but
the way it was presented was that Angeline was part of a group
of youngsters, almost as if this was already established. Here
is another one. This internet cult thing has taken another victim.
How many youngsters have a mobile phone but none of the articles
said all these victims had a mobile phone. Is there a mobile phone
death cult going on? The youngsters do use these internet sites
as much as they use a mobile phone, perhaps even more because
it is free once you are on-line.
Q292 Paul Farrelly: The Daily
Express apologised to you. Did that apology actually affect
the behaviour of the Daily Express?
Mr Fuller: I have no idea.
Q293 Paul Farrelly: Did it affect
the behaviour of the reporting afterwards of other newspapers?
Mr Fuller: I would like to think
it did. I did notice one or two newspapers using the phrase "harmed
themselves" but then more recently there has been another
incident and told the individual hanged themselves. I could not
say whether it has any lasting effect. The apology came in the
form of a letter back to Mr Abell from their legal adviser who
said they had sent information back around to the reporters how
they were supposed to conduct themselves. They did not feel they
had included excessive detail. I would disagree with that but
I felt it was not worth taking any further. They did include more
details in the quotation from somebody else. The items I have
mentioned to you about personal details about Angeline's medical
history and Joel's personal situation, the apology came in a paragraph
in that letter which said we cannot really justify the inclusion
and we apologise to Mr Fuller for all that. I did not get anything
directly; it just came through this.
Q294 Paul Farrelly: The 16-year-old
son of my children's godfather died in a tragic accident on New
Year's Eve while messing around on a railway station. That made
the local and the national press. I looked on the website of the
local newspaper in the area and I was upset. I cannot imagine
how my friend and people in families like yourselves would have
felt about some of the comments that were made from members of
the public on the story because the commentary invited views.
Did you see any offensive comments that were run on websites belonging
to the newspaper?
Mr Fuller: I would not say they
were offensive. One thing that has concerned me on the subject
of the websites is the fact that some work has been done behind
the scenes with the police and the ISPs, the internet Service
Providers, to have the pages removed. The only way to get back
onto these sites is to log into them and delete them and of course
once you are dead you cannot do that. Parents cannot do it and
nobody else can do it. Some work has been done to have these personal
sites removed. What has happened is in creating these memorial
sites one way or another the person has managed to take a copy
of the picture and the comments of that individual, in this case
my daughter, and recreate that web page, but instead of having
the conversations of that person you have tributes coming in.
There is one in particular which comes up. Somebody has built
this memorial garden. It is not for me to say as it may help millions
of the people throughout the world because she has millions of
things set up. She must devote hours and hours to setting these
up for people all around the world who have lost loved ones. In
my case just reviewing it there are two tributes which have appeared
on the site from people she knew and the rest of them are from
individuals on the other side of the world. You can tell from
the comments that they have no connection with Angeline whatsoever.
In a callous type of way what are they doing, just surfing this
site, picking up the name of someone they do not even know and
saying "God Bless. Peace you little angel. You are beautiful"?
I am not saying it is not a well meant thing, and maybe some people
specifically look at these to give condolence, but to me it is
meaningless. I do feel a bit put out that somebody can set this
up as a memorial to Angeline and anybody out there can post something
on it. I do not think we have any control over that. If I decided
to set up a memorial site for my daughter, I would not want other
relatives saying of the ISP take it down because it is mine, I
own it, it is my daughter and friends and family can put comments
on it, but when somebody totally unrelated does is it how can
you stop it? That troubles me but I have to let that go on out
there somewhere.
Q295 Janet Anderson: Could I ask
you about the meeting that the PCC called in Bridgend. I think
you said this was the first contact you had with the PCC, is that
right?
Mr Fuller: I am not sure if it
is direct contact with the PCC. I was invited to join in the meeting
as all the parents were invited.
Q296 Janet Anderson: Who invited
you?
Mr Fuller: I think it came from
Madeleine Moon's office via the police. There was a bit of a data
protection issue when the whole thing started. The police held
my name and address and Angeline's mother's name and address so
any correspondence initially went out through them. I think that
is how I originally got the invitation.
Q297 Janet Anderson: How long was
that after your daughter's death?
Mr Fuller: I cannot remember.
She died in February and it was about May some time.
Q298 Janet Anderson: That is what
made you aware of the PCC and was it following that that you decided
to complain?
Mr Fuller: It was. I did feel
that if it was closer I would have given up the time and gone
along, partly to be with the other parents as they are going through
the same thing and to express my views and give support to what
they were going to say. I think I had already got the gist of
what they were trying to achieve because of the individual complaints.
The press had reported the incidents but they had also reported
the repercussions, the complaints that were being made by various
parents saying we are not happy with this, that and the other
being reported and things on the internet to that effect as well.
It would have been an opportunity for me to say what I am saying
here today, how it affected me and maybe things do need to be
changed.
Q299 Janet Anderson: Your daughter
died in February and that is when the distressing press coverage
started. Were you at that stage aware you could have complained
to the PCC?
Mr Fuller: I knew I could. I knew
there was a PCC. I could have asked at the time but it was not
a priority in the scheme of things. Realistically I felt that
I could say something but may be it would drag things further
than they need to. It was an article that was written. Most people
would not know Angeline. Those who do know her were affected and
upset by the article but as the weeks and months go by the people
who did not know her would forget about it. They would know there
were a lot of incidents in Bridgend but they would not think Angeline
Fuller necessarily even though it was on the front page. I just
thought let it go. The importance of something like this and the
PCC meeting is to focus in on it. It is not the general public
that can let it go; it is the people that are really affected.
I do feel that is important. I am happy to contribute here. I
would have contributed the same but it was a three or four hour
journey away from home.
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