Daniel Knott: Mum's heartbreak at online video of son's body

A mother who lost her son to suicide said her grief was amplified by a video of his body being shared on social media.

Daniel Knott, 39, died on 27 March and days later his mother Jenny Tancock was told about the distressing video.

A man had filmed Daniel's body before the emergency services arrived.

"To go and share it online for the world to see... it's the ultimate insult, the ultimate degrading of someone I think," said Jenny.

Jacob Morse, 22, was sentenced to six weeks in prison at Llanelli Magistrates' Court on 18 May after pleading guilty to circulating the video online.

Jenny has not watched the video, but said knowing that others had seen it caused her and the rest of her family huge distress.

"[I felt] anger, pure anger, disbelief that somebody could be so vile as to arrive at a scene like that and actually video it," said Jenny from Betws, Carmarthenshire.

"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."

Jenny was told a woman found Daniel's body who then called the emergency services.

But Morse, who had been working nearby, came across the scene and filmed Daniel's body using his mobile phone before emergency services arrived.

Jenny said coming face-to-face with Morse in court left her feeling "full of hate".

"I shouldn't have been there, I was grieving... I just shook from head to toe the whole time," she said.

Despite her anger, she said she had mixed feelings about Morse's six-week custodial sentence.

"It hit me as a mother, it really did, he just looked like a big kid… and I was really torn as to how I felt," she said.

"I kept thinking 'what would Dan do?' and I don't think Dan would have wanted him to go to prison.

"Six weeks isn't enough but at the same time it's a prison sentence, he's gone to prison and that tells me that our justice system is taking it seriously."

With the court case behind her, Jenny has been left to contemplate the horror of the past eight weeks.

"To lose a child is the worst thing that can ever happen to you. To lose them to suicide takes it to a different level," she said.

She said she remembers Daniel as "an enigma, full of beans, full of life, from the day he was born just kind, caring, generous, loved by everybody."

Daniel grew up to be a raver with a passion for fun, hardcore dance music and DJing.

But seven years ago that changed when Daniel was involved in a serious car crash which left him with a fractured skull and a broken back. He underwent an operation to have metal rods inserted to stabilise his back.

"He split with his girlfriend, lost his house, lost his job, lost everything really," said Jenny.

"Physically he couldn't play the decks anymore, he couldn't stand for long, he'd shake from head to toe because the rods were pressing on nerves.

"It's almost as though Daniel lost the fight."

She said when she saw police officers at her door she "just knew".

"I just said please don't, please don't."

Jenny and her family are being supported by local charity The Jac Lewis Foundation, which was set up by Jac Lewis's family after he took his own life.

The charity has accompanied her to court and arranged for her to have counselling.

She said the support had "helped us enormously".

Jenny said speaking out would be worth it if it could prevent "just one person who is tempted to take a video and share it under any kind of traumatic circumstances."

She said: "I want to raise awareness that these are human beings, they're people, they've got families, to share things on the internet for shock value or for likes is awful and I want them to know that there's consequences."

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