Dad of girl who took her own life says school told others to delete Snapchats

The father of 14-year-old Mia Janin, who took her own life after fake nudes of her were shared amongst classmates, has claimed the school asked students to delete messages about it during the investigation.

Mia had been a pupil at the Jewish Free School in Kenton, London, when she was discovered dead at her family’s home in Harrow in March 2021.

Her father, Mariano Janin, has said he believes she was bullied online, and told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg about his daughter’s ordeal.

He has now claimed the school ‘organised an assembly and asked the kids to delete the messages’.

Mariano said: ‘I didn’t know about this online world. They say that she was bullied, we found a screenshot saying that she was prepared to be badly bullied, naming the kids that were bullying her.

‘They organised in the school an assembly and asked the kids to delete the messages.

‘My common sense says that if you have a police investigation and you have this potential group, you should notify to the police – maybe this group of kids, they have information on their phone, but that’s what they did.’

One child who provided a statement to the inquiry said the boy’s group chat at the schoolwas used to share mocked-up nude photos of girls at the school.

They said: ‘They took screenshots of girls’ faces on social media and made fun of them. They shared a video of Mia’s TikTok and made fun of her.’

In a statement, the student also said boys ‘photoshopped girls’ faces on the ‘bodies of pornography performers’.

Another child said that a TikTok video posted by Mia the night before she returned to school received a lot of negative comments from other pupils.

They added: ‘Mia said she was fine, but I don’t think that she was fine.’

Mia had also asked her parents if she could move schools after coming home that day, and her mum Marisa had said she could be home-schooled for the rest of the year.

After going to bed that night, Mia was dead just hours later.

Coroner Tony Murphy said that there was no evidence that any images or videos involving Mia had been shared in the group chat, except for the TikTok.

But former deputy headteacher at JFS Rabbi Cohen told the boys to close down their group after Mia died, the inquest heard.

JFS has said the school was not aware of the group chat’s existence before Mia’s death.

Prior to the inquest’s conclusion, her heartbroken family revealed the harrowing voice message she sent to a friend the night before she was due to return to school.

‘Tomorrow’s going to be a rough day,’ said Mia through tears in the message, which was shared with BBC London. 

‘Stand by me. I’m taking deep breaths. In and out.

‘I’m currently mentally preparing myself to get bullied tomorrow.’

She was found dead at about 6.50am the next morning. Two undated letters in Mia’s handwriting were found on her bed addressed to ‘her loving family and friends’, which ‘explained that Mia decided to end her life’.

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