The High Court has quashed the original conclusion of Jools Sweeney’s inquest and ordered a fresh inquest at a later date. Ellen Roome brought the High Court bid after the September 2022 inquest into her son’s death lasted 23 minutes, called no live evidence and ended with a narrative conclusion.
Ellen Roome at the High Court
Roome said after the ruling: “I cannot live the rest of my life without trying to look for answers as to why my son's not here,” and added: “Hopefully it shows that actually going forward, social media companies must step up and protect children online.” She also said: “We hope this is a turning point, not only in finding the truth about Jools, but in making the online world safer for every child.”
Lord Justice Warby and Mrs Justice Heather Williams ordered the fresh inquest, and Roome said she would use the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 to request Jools Sweeney’s social media content via the coroner. The ruling follows a legal challenge over a case that Roome’s lawyers said raised new evidence about social media and several lines of inquiry that were not pursued before.
Social media and device data
The fresh inquest is intended to examine Jools Sweeney’s social media and device data, a step described as believed to be the first of its kind in England and Wales for a child’s inquest. At the time of the September 2022 hearing, the Online Safety Act 2023 was not in place.
Under the Online Safety Act 2023, Ofcom can now request information from social media firms, including material a child viewed or uploaded. Roome’s lawyers said those powers and the later Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 create a route to seek material through the coroner that was not available when the original inquest took place.
Mariano Janin and Mia
Neither the coroner nor TikTok opposed the bid to reopen the inquest. Mariano Janin attended the High Court with Roome, and he told the: “What Ellen is doing, it's very important,” adding: “It would [make it] a little bit more easy to get the information.”
Janin believes his daughter Mia took her own life in 2021 because of cyber-bullying, and he said he would consider applying to reopen the inquest into her death if Roome was successful. The fresh inquest now gives Roome a second hearing on the record she says was never properly tested the first time.
