Comments Prompt ‘Shrine Removal’

A Plymouth mother has taken down a shrine commemorating the death of her daughter in a car crash after reading negative comments on a newspaper website.

The Herald’s online story about the anniversary of the death of two girls who died in a stolen car received a significant number of users’ comments criticising the placing of flowers and cards at the accident scene.

The mother of one of the teenagers later revealed to the Herald that she decided to remove the articles of remembrance from the city centre location after reading the criticism.

She said she took action because she did not want “nasty things said about Jade because of the way we are dealing with her loss”.

Herald Web Editor Neil Shaw told holdthefrontpage.co.uk: “There were lots of negative comments about the shrine, saying they didn’t like driving past it.”

Shaw stated that the Herald operates a pre-moderation policy with its comments, noting: “We monitor them as they come in. We saw them and thought they were harsh but decided to leave them on.”

He added that the effects of users’ comments will no doubt be seen again: “To actually take direct action like this, it’s the first time we’ve seen that - and probably not the last.”

Further reactions about the incident can be found here.