Julian “Jools” Sweeney died in April 2022; a brief inquest later that year recorded a narrative conclusion and ruled out suicide. His mother, Ellen Roome, believes his death followed an online challenge and successfully had the inquest reopened. Roome replays a video he sent from Kilimanjaro — in which he told her to “stay strong and be brave” — to keep campaigning. She is pushing for stronger child protections online and for laws making platforms grant parents access to a deceased child’s account data. Her interview with Holly Willoughby will be released on 4 August.
Mother Replays Son’s Message to Drive Campaign for Safer Social Media
Ellen Roome has campaigned for better online safety regulation since her son's death [Handout]
Julian “Jools” Sweeney, a teenager from Gloucestershire, died in April 2022. A 23-minute inquest later that year returned a narrative conclusion and recorded that his death was not the result of suicide. His mother, Ellen Roome of Cheltenham, believes his death followed an online challenge that went wrong and successfully challenged the original inquest decision so it could be reopened.
Roome says she often replays a short video message Jools sent her while she was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, in which he told her to “stay strong and be brave.” She uses that clip as a daily motivator while continuing her campaign work to protect children online.
Ellen Roome campaigns to protect children from online harm [Getty Images]
“Jools was the most beautiful, happy boy,” Roome told Holly Willoughby during an interview for the presenter’s YouTube series Together. “There are days that getting out of bed is hard and you just think, ‘What am I getting up for?’ And I would watch that video and go, ‘Right, Jools, off we go.’ When I was really campaigning hard, I'd walk past the stairs and go, ‘come on Jools, got stuff to do,’ as if he's still alive — taking him with me.”
Roome has emerged as a prominent campaigner in Britain pressing for tighter protections for children online. Her priorities include restricting social media use by young children and changing the law so social platforms must grant parents access to a deceased child’s account data when necessary for investigations.
Ellen's son Jools died in 2022 [Ellen Roome]
The High Court recently quashed the senior coroner’s original conclusion after Roome’s legal challenge. Roome said at the time she hoped the decision would be “a turning point — not only in finding the truth about Jools, but in making the online world safer for every child.”
The full interview with Ellen Roome will be published on Holly Willoughby’s YouTube channel and other digital platforms on 4 August. Willoughby, who presented ITV’s This Morning for 14 years, has returned to digital broadcasting with the Together series.
Support and Contact: If you have a story to share with BBC Gloucestershire, the original report invited people to follow local coverage and submit tips via social channels or WhatsApp. Roome continues to campaign and raise awareness about online risks facing young people.
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