By Ashley Young
The Oxford Mail has been forced to apologise for publishing false information about the death of a teenage school boy who was found hanged in 2019.
Tragic 13-year-old Harry Storey was found hanged after finding out the girl he had a secret ‘crush’ on had started dating another boy. Harry Storey’s friends did not take him seriously when he commented to them on WhatsApp that he had thoughts about suicide after learning of a love rival.
The mistaken publication by the Oxford Mail that Harry was said to have had mental health problems by the coroner added to the pain of the family. The paper’s apology came after the Independent Press Organisation( Ipso) investigated the complaint about the inaccurate report.The press watchdog upheld the complaint against the Oxford Mail about its inaccurate reporting of the death of schoolboy Harry Storey. Sue Storey, the boy’s mother, complained that the Mail had wrongly reported that her son had a “previously well-known mental health history”, when the coroner actually said that he had “no known mental health history”.
The Mail attempted to defend its position by stating that the notes taken by the journalist during proceedings had been corroborated in writing by a second journalist from another news outlet.
Ms Storey complained under Clause 1 (Accuracy) and Clause 4 (Intrusion into grief or shock) of the Editors’ Code of Practice, after the coroner confirmed that he had in fact said that her son had “no known mental health history” during the course of IPSO’s investigation, and provided a recording of the proceedings to show this.
Ms Storey also complained, but without justification, that the prominent headline and photograph of her child was inappropriate and unnecessary, and had not been published with her knowledge or consent. Mrs Storey added that details of how her son had died had not been communicated to teachers or students at the school, adding that by publishing these details in the article it had caused her and her family much distress.
The Mail had initially maintained the story was accurate, until it was provided with a recording of the inquest during IPSO’s investigation. It accepted that the reporter had misheard what the coroner had said. The newspaper recognised the distress caused by the quote and offered to publish a correction and apology in relation to the false claim which had already been made in its sister title, the Didcot Herald. However , the paper correctly rejected claims that the article’s publication had been handled insensitively and said that it was entitled to report on inquest proceedings, adding that there was a significant public interest in this particular case.
The Mail added it did not make any direct approaches to the family but instead had contacted the police and the school to inform them that the article would be published, and to ask whether the parents would like to speak. It also said that following the article, it had ensured that there was additional training for staff in relation to the reporting of suicide, and cases involving children.
IPSO found that although the story had accurately reported the contemporaneous notes taken at the inquest, these notes had inaccurately recorded what was said by the coroner. However, the regulator found no other wrongdoing on the part of the Mail. The paper said it had sought permission to use this photograph from their reporting of a previous event, and they had informed both the school and police liaison that it would be used in order for them to tell the family, so they would not be surprised when it was published it.
However, the family were not notified in advance, but were more upset about the inaccurate reporting. The paper eventually corrected its error three days after being challenged about the error, stating that it had incorrectly published that Harry had a “well-known mental health history”. The apology came too late and more should have been done by the paper to confirm whether it had made a mistake or not.