Mariano Janin and his daughter Mia on December 30, 2019.
Mariano Janin and his daughter Mia on December 30, 2019.
WARNING: This story deals with teen suicide and may be distressing.
The Metropolitan Police has promised to return the lost mobile phone of a pupil who took her own life, after her father claimed her school had ordered pupils to delete bullying messages they had sent.
Mia Janin, 14, was found dead at her family home in Barnet in March 2021 and an inquest was told she had been bullied at the Jewish Free School (JFS) in Kenton, northwest London.
The Met said after the investigation into her death that Mia’s family had requested the return of the sim for her main phone and a second handset, but officers had been “unable to locate them within the property store”.
Mia Janin, 14, was found dead at her family home in Barnet in March 2021.
However, in a statement on Sunday the force said the items have since been recovered and officers had spoken with family representatives this week about sending them back.
Speaking to BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Mia’s father, Mariano Janin, said that JFS “organised an assembly” and “asked kids to delete the messages”.
He said: “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.”
Third suicide at JFS
JFS has said all the information they had was handed to the police and the coroner’s report was not a reflection of how things are at the school today, the BBC reported.
A coroner found in January that Mia “took her life while still a child and while still in the process of maturing into adulthood”.
Before the inquest concluded, Mia’s family released a WhatsApp voice note to the BBC in which she expressed her torment.
In the recorded message, which she sent to a friend, she said: “Tomorrow’s going to be a rough day, I’m taking deep breaths in and out. I’m currently mentally preparing myself to get bullied tomorrow.”
Marisa Janin and her daughter Mia, who took her own life aged 14 on March 12 2021. Photo / Supplied
Her death was the third suicide in four years at JFS, the biggest Jewish school in Europe.
In the interview on Sunday, Janin criticised the Government’s plans to ban children from having phones in schools. He said the strategy was “not the way”, adding that “we need to learn to live with this technology”.
Social media platforms need responsibility
Janin said: “(They) will have a phone anyway, it’s like this, they will hide the phone, and it’s not the way – they need to learn to use their phones in a responsible way.”
Social media platforms need to have “some kind of responsibility as well”, he said.
Det Supt Adam Rowland, from the Met’s north-west policing team, said: “The impact of Mia’s death is acutely felt by all who knew her, particularly her family and close friends.
Mariano Janin, his wife Marisa, their daughter Mia and her dog, Lola.
“Their loss is unimaginable and our thoughts remain with them.
“After Mia died in March 2021, we looked carefully at the circumstances leading to her death in order to provide a full and thorough account to the coroner.
