Met Police return lost mobile phone to schoolgirl’s family three years after she took her life
An inquest into the death of Mia Janin heard that she was being badly bullied by fellow pupils
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Your support makes all the difference.The Metropolitan Police have promised to return a lost sim card and mobile phone to the family of a schoolgirl who killed herself after she was bullied.
Mia Janin, a 14-year-old Year 10 pupil at Jewish Free School (JFS) in Kenton, north-west London, was found dead at her family home in Barnet on 12 March 2021.
An inquest heard that Mia had been bullied by other JFS students, with her father Mariano claiming that the school had “organised an assembly” and “asked kids to delete the messages”.
After the investigation into her death, her family requested the return of her sim and a second handset, but were informed that officers were “unable to locate them within the property store”.
At the time, the Met Police apologised to the family for the additional stress caused, while Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called the loss “totally unacceptable”.
The force have now said the items have since been recovered and officers had spoken with family representatives this week about sending them back.
Her father is now campaigning for social media companies to take further responsibility, and for an increased awareness of the dangers of the internet amongst younger people.
Barnet Coroner’s Court heard that one of Mia’s TikTok posts had been shared to a Snapchat group run by pupils, some of whom made fun of her.
Mr Janin told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme that the Government’s calls to ban children from having phones in schools is “not the way”, adding that “we need to learn to live with this technology”.
He said: “I didn’t know about this online world. They say that she was bullied, we found a screenshot saying that she was prepared to be badly bullied, naming the kids that were bullying her.”
The BBC reported thatJ FS has said all the relevant information they had was handed to the police and the coroner’s report was not a reflection of how things are at the school today.
He added: “My common sense says that if you have a police investigation and you have this potential group, you should notify to the police – maybe this group of kids, they have information on their phone, but that’s what they did.”
Discussing the Government’s plan to prohibit children from using phones in schools, Mr Janin said: “(They) will have a phone anyway, it’s like this, they will hide the phone, and it’s not the way – they need to learn to use their phones in a responsible way.”
Social media platforms need to have “some kind of responsibility as well”, he said.
Mr Janin praised the Online Safety Bill passed in October last year, which aims to protect people from harmful content online.
He told Kuenssberg: “I think it is an amazing thing that we will have something, of course, because technology, it is changing. If you have a young kid you need to understand where are they because that’s the thing I discovered after – there’s some places on the internet that the kids can get access in a way that we would never try to do, dark places.”
Mia was last seen alive at about 10pm on March 11 2021, when she said goodnight to her parents at their family home, the inquest into her death heard.
They found her the next day, and two undated letters in Mia’s handwriting were found on her bed addressed to “her loving family and friends”.
Kuenssberg said: “(Mia’s) school, the Jewish Free School in London, said all the information they had was handed to the police and said the coroner’s report wasn’t a reflection of how things are at the school today.”
Detective Superintendent Adam Rowland, from the Met’s north-west policing team, said: “The impact of Mia’s death is acutely felt by all who knew her, particularly her family and close friends.
“Their loss is unimaginable and our thoughts remain with them.
“After Mia died in March 2021, we looked carefully at the circumstances leading to her death in order to provide a full and thorough account to the coroner.
“This included speaking to her family, friends and pupils and staff at her school, as well as in-depth analysis of her phone and use of social media.
“All of the evidence gathered during this investigation was passed to the coroner to consider as part of the inquest.”
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
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