Molly Russell's death was due to depression, suicide, coroner rules

Molly Russell, 14, died as a result of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content a coroner has ruled.

Senior coroner Andrew Walker made his ruling on Friday as an inquest into the teenager's death came to a conclusion at North London coroner's court. The inquest had heard that Molly, from Harrow, north-west London, had interacted with large amounts of harmful social media content in the final months of her life.

The inquest focused on Molly's use of Instagram and Pinterest in the final months of her life. At the two-week hearing, executives at both US-based companies gave evidence that Molly had viewed graphic content in the months before she ended her life in November 2017.

In the final six months of her life, Molly viewed more than 16,000 pieces of content on Instagram, of which 2,100 were related to suicide, self-harm and depression. The inquest heard how she had compiled a digital pinboard on Pinterest with 469 images related to similar subjects.

Elizabeth Lagone, head of health and wellbeing policy at Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, admitted that Molly had viewed posts that violated its content policies and apologised.

A senior Pinterest executive apologised for the platform showing inappropriate content and acknowledged that the platform was not safe at the time Molly was on it.

The inquest heard evidence from a child psychiatrist, Dr Navin Venugopal, who said Molly had been put at risk by the content she had seen. The headteacher at Molly's secondary school also gave evidence that it was almost impossible to keep track of the dangers posed to pupils by social media.

Since Molly's death, the Russell family has been prominent campaigners for internet safety and attended the inquest throughout.

In a pen portrait of his daughter that opened the inquest, Molly's father Ian Russell, 59, paid tribute to a girl full of love and hope and happiness. She said she had been struggling with her mental health and hiding her struggles from the rest of us in the hope of finding peace. He added: It is OK not to be OK and it is important to talk to someone trained or qualified whenever it is needed.