A mother has described her anguish after a video of her son's body following his suicide was shared on social media. Daniel Knott, 39, died on 27 March, and days later his mother Jenny Tancock was informed about the distressing footage.
A man, Jacob Morse, 22, filmed Daniel's body before emergency services arrived at the scene in Betws, Carmarthenshire. Morse pleaded guilty to circulating the video online and was sentenced to six weeks in prison at Llanelli Magistrates' Court on 18 May.
Jenny, who has not watched the video, said knowing others had seen it caused her and her family immense distress. 'To go and share it online for the world to see... it's the ultimate insult, the ultimate degrading of someone I think,' she said.
She described her anger and disbelief that someone could be 'so vile' as to film the scene. 'For us what Jake Morse has done has just amplified that grief. We're dealing with something so vile when we should just be grieving for Daniel,' she added.
Despite her anger, Jenny expressed mixed feelings about Morse's sentence. 'It hit me as a mother, he just looked like a big kid… I kept thinking 'what would Dan do?' and I don't think Dan would have wanted him to go to prison.' She hopes speaking out will deter others from sharing such content, saying: 'These are human beings, they're people, they've got families.'
