On top of my grief, I've been a victim of trolls & conspiracy theorists

Jay Slater's mum trying to stóp web misinformatión

- BY MATT ROPER

It was a case which made every parent shudder, a teenage son vanishing on his first holiday abroad.

But for Debbie Duncan, the pain of losing 19-year-old Jay Slater was made infinitely worse by a second wave of cruelty - an avalanche of lies, conspiracies and online abuse that turned her private grief into public torture.

As she and her family searched for Jay, who went missing in Tenerife, Spain, they were bombarded with falsehoods - fake CCTV clips, doctored videos, wild speculation about kidnappings and worse.

Even after Jay's body was found, the conspiracy theories only intensified, with posters online even accusing the grieving mother of murdering her son.

Speaking to the Mirror ahead of a Channel 4 documentary about Jay's death, Debbie called for a new Jay's Law to stop armchair detectives from spreading misinformation online about missing people and, as in Jay's case, their subsequent deaths.

Debbie, 57, says she is "first and foremost a mother who lost her son".

She added: "That pain is unbearable. But on top of my grief, I have been the victim of an organised network of conspiracy theorists.

"It is exhausting and it has made the worst chapter of my life even harder."