‘It’s almost a copycat of what happened to Erin’

The mother of two Irish teenagers who took their own lives has said the death of English girl Hannah Smith has forced her to relive the deaths of her two girls.

Hannah took her own life last Friday after being bullied on website Ask.fm.

This is the same website on which Co Donegal schoolgirl Erin Gallagher was bullied weeks before her death last November.

Her sister Shannon took her own life a month later as she said she could not live without her younger sister.

Now the girls’ mum has revealed how she has been put through torment again after learning that yet another teenager has died as result of online bullying.

Lorraine Gallagher said Hannah’s death is almost a mirror-image of Erin’s.

Ms Gallagher said she first learned of Hannah’s death when she saw pictures of her late daughters on her TV yesterday.

“I then realised that another young girl had taken her own life and it was as a direct result of being bullied through Ask.fm. I couldn’t breathe for a while as I tried to take it all in. Hannah’s death was almost a copycat of what happened to my Erin. She was bullied online and nobody listened. She asked the bullies to stop but they wouldn’t.”

She said she was again begging the Government and governments around the world to ban Ask.fm, which has 60m users.

“How many deaths will it take before the authorities realise that Ask.fm is harming our teenagers?

“I am asking the Irish Government to take a stand on this and lead the way and ban Ask.fm in Ireland. Sure they have the power to do that.

“If people were telling children where to get drugs or alcohol, we would be quick enough to close it down.

“But it doesn’t seem to matter that children are allowed to be bullied online by anonymous people. It has to stop,” she said.