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The inquest into the death of a ۱۴-year-old boy, whose mother believes he died after a TikTok challenge gone wrong, is to be reopened in a landmark ruling by the high court.
Jools Sweeney, a schoolboy from Gloucestershire, died in April ۲۰۲۲. His parents, Ellen Roome and Matt Sweeney, believed social media played a role in his death, pointing to the popularity of the “blackout challenge” online at the time.
In their ruling, Lord Justice Warby and Mrs Justice Heather Williams ordered a fresh inquest into the schoolboy’s death to allow for the examination of previously omitted social media evidence.
Warby said it was “now clear there are various potential lines of inquiry” that had not been considered in the original inquest.
“For more than four years, we have fought every single day for the truth about what happened to our beautiful son Jools,” said Roome, who wept in court as the judges read out their ruling. “Today, the legal system has finally recognised that there are questions which deserve to be answered.”
The ruling is believed to be the first of its kind in England and Wales, in which one of the main grounds for overturning the previous inquest was the lack of social media evidence.
The high court also overturned the findings of the original ۲۰۲۲ inquest, which lasted only ۲۳ minutes and heard no oral evidence. The inquest also did not examine social media evidence, which was unavailable at that time.
Roome later commissioned a private forensic analysis of Jools’ phone, uncovering evidence not available to the original investigation. Her barrister, Harry Lambert, said evidence from Jools’ TikTok data was “highly probative of overuse or addiction.”.
“This journey has broken us at times,” said Roome. “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.”
Roome has also successfully campaigned for “Jools’ Law”, which now requires tech companies to automatically preserve a child’s online and social media data within five days of their death. This was written into the Crime and Policing Act on ۲۹ April ۲۰۲۶.
Antony Jones, representing TikTok, said the company did not oppose Roome’s proposal and “could certainly see the force” for a new inquest.
“Ellen’s case has exposed just how much change is needed to ensure that parents like her have greater opportunities and a voice from the opening of the coronial inquiry,” said Gary Miller, a partner at Mishcon de Reya LLP, who instructed Lambert. “Social media is integrated into the lives of young people, and the current investigative processes are not fit for purpose in this new world.”
Roome, joined by four other bereaved British parents, is separately suing TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, in Delaware, United States.
