The Metropolitan Police has announced that it will be returning a lost sim card and mobile phone to the family of a 14-year-old schoolgirl who took her own life after suffering bullying. Mia Janin was bullied by other students at the Jewish Free School in north-west London in 2021. An inquest concluded that the girl was being bullied by boys at the school. The victim’s father informed the BBC that new laws were required to deal with cyber-bullying. Her family was “devastated” when the Met Police lost the significant evidence.
The sim card and handset were examined by specialists before it was put in a property store at Barnet police station with the intention of being returned to her family later. However, when her family requested the items to be returned last year, the police were unable to find them. The force said that all evidence collected during its investigation was passed to the coroner for the inquest, and the police have spoken to representatives of the family to arrange for the return of the sim card from her main phone and a secondary handset.
In the United Kingdom, there is no specific law on bullying or cyber-bullying, and the courts rely on other legislation to tackle harassment and malicious communications. The victim’s father called on the authorities to create new laws against bullying to safeguard children. He further said that current legislation on bullying needed to be revised, and the legal boundaries for social media should be established.
Mia was discovered dead at her family home in Harrow a day after returning to the Jewish Free School following the lifting of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. After her death, her parents discovered that she was being bullied by a group of male students on social media, and in person. Earlier this week, the coroner for north London urged the school’s leaders to take further measures against bullying to avoid future deaths, especially the targeting of female students by males
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