Grieving mother sobs ‘it doesn’t make sense!’ on BBC Breakfast as she demands answers about son’s death after disturbing footage of his final moments is released

A grieving mother was left sobbing on BBC Breakfast as she demanded answers about her teenage son’s death following disturbing footage from his final moments.

The heartbroken parent opened up on the devastating death of her 14-year-old, Jools Sweeney – who was found unconscious in 2022 after taking his own life, which was ruled as unintended by a coroner.

Mum Ellen Roome revealed she believes Jools died after an online challenge went wrong, but is yet to be given access to his social media data.

Ms Roome has been campaigning to access her son’s social media accounts, across TikTok, Meta and Snapchat, as she believes they hold the answers as to why he took his own life.

She said Jools did a ‘lot of online challenges’ and fears he fell victim to a ‘dark and dangerous’ one such as Blackout, a viral trend where children film themselves holding their breath until they fall unconscious.

She and a group of bereaved parents have filed wrongful death lawsuits against TikTok, and the mother is set to appear in court in the US for the legal battle.

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A grieving mother was left sobbing on BBC Breakfast as she demanded answers over her teenage son’s death following disturbing footage from his final moments

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The heartbroken parent opened up on the devastating death of her 14-year-old, Jools Sweeney – who was found unconscious in 2022 after taking his own life, which was ruled as unintended by a coroner

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Ms Roome said in an interview that aired on the show, hosted by Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt, on Friday: ‘Jools was the most caring, loving, bright child.

‘He just had the most amazing, kind heart, and it just doesn’t make sense to me.’

The report detailed: ‘Ellen believes Jools may have died after attempting an online challenge that was circulating on social media in 2022.

‘The lawsuit alleges that Jools and four other British children died after being exposed to harmful content amplified by TikTok’s algorithms. This is the first part of the family’s legal battle.’

Ms Roome explained: ‘TikTok are trying to kick us out of the lawsuit and say we’ve got no grounds for a lawsuit. Our lawyers are obviously then going to say, we have, and these are the reasons why.

‘Assuming we stay in, we move to the next stage, which is discovery, where TikTok will have to release our children’s data.

‘All of us have not been able to see what our children looked at.

‘I do think if social media companies had nothing to hide, why have they not said to us, here’s the data. And that has never made sense to me.’

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Ms Roome said in an interview that aired on the show, hosted by Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt, on Friday: ‘Jools was the most caring, loving, bright child’

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Ms Roome has been campaigning to access her son’s social media accounts, across TikTok, Meta and Snapchat, as she believes they hold the answers as to why he took his own life

The final footage of Jools shows him greeting one of his friends on a Ring doorbell, and appearing to laugh happily with his pal.

‘He goes in laughing, so what on earth happened in that last hour and a half?’ Ms Roome continued. ‘That’s what I want to piece together.

‘I can’t bring Jools back, but if we can start proving accountability that children are fed this, and this is what our children have seen and how it could have affected them, then we can start holding those companies accountable and saying this is not acceptable.’

Holding onto Jools’s phone and getting emotional, the mother continued: ‘Do you know, it’s like… Somebody said it to me, it’s like an echo, and it’s quite true.

‘When you pick something up that’s theirs, whether it’s his phone, or, I don’t know, if I’m in his room picking up his socks, it’s like he touched it last. It’s almost like you want to feel something through it.’

The BBC report included a statement from TikTok, which read: ‘Our deepest sympathies remain with these families.

‘We strictly prohibit content that promotes or encourages dangerous behaviour. Using robust detection systems and dedicated enforcement teams to proactively identify and remove this content, we remove 99% that’s found to break these rules before it is reported to us.

‘TikTok no longer has watch or search history for Jools because the law requires it to delete people’s personal data unless it is needed for running a business.’

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Earlier this year, it was revealed Ms Roome has been campaigning for ‘Jools’ Law’ – which would allow parents to access the social media accounts of their children if they died

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Ms Roome and a group of bereaved parents have filed wrongful death lawsuits against TikTok, and the mother is set to appear in court in the US for the legal battle

Earlier this year, it was revealed Ms Roome has been campaigning for ‘Jools’ Law’ – which would allow parents to access the social media accounts of their children if they died.

The petition, which gained 126,000 signatures, was debated in Parliament on Monday. She said having access to his social media could provide the evidence needed to explain his death.

Ms Roome is raising money for legal fees as she has been told by her lawyer it will cost up to £86,000 to take on the social media companies in court.

‘This might answer why Jools is no longer alive and perhaps help make a landmark case, which in turn could help other bereaved parents,’ she said.

Without full access to his social media data, the mother from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, has no way of knowing what happened to her teenage child in the day of his death.

Ms Roome said: ‘He was massive on social media. He did a lot of online challenges.

‘Harmless challenges that I thought was just fun and I wasn’t aware of some dangerous dark challenges that are on social media.

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Ms Roome is raising money for legal fees as she has been told by her lawyer it will cost up to £86,000 to take on the social media companies in court

‘If we had access to it [data] we would have had answers to why a 14-year-old decided to end his life.

‘It is horrific – to lose a child and not understand why he decided to end his life is terrible.’

She added: ‘He was a happy child, always laughing, always smiling with plenty of friends. Over 500 people went to his funeral – there wasn’t anybody in his life that had concerns about him.

‘When it happened it was completely out of the blue. I had spoken to him one hour and a half before it happened.’

Ms Roome said she has spent thousands in legal fees trying to get data from Jools’s accounts – however without any success.