Cheltenham mum’s High Court bid to reopen son’s death inquest

A leading figure in the campaign to ban social media for children in the UK will petition the High Court later to reopen the inquest into her son’s death.

Ellen Roome’s 14-year-old son Jools Sweeney died in 2022. An inquest previously returned a narrative verdict ruling out suicide but Roome believes her son died in an online challenge that went wrong.

The Cheltenham mother says quashing the verdict and reopening the inquest would allow previously unavailable evidence from Jools’s social media to be seen.

Thanks to the Online Safety Act 2023, external, Ofcom can now request information from social media firms, including material a child viewed or uploaded, which was unavailable when Jools died.

If there is another inquest, Roome said she would also use the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, external to request Jools’s social media content via the coroner.

“I cannot live the rest of my life without trying to look for answers as to why my son’s not here,” she said.

“Hopefully it shows that actually going forward, social media companies must step up and protect children online.”