‘Nicole’s not a story, she’s my daughter. She mattered then and she matters now. She’s not a statistic.’
When Jackie Fox lost her daughter to Nicole to suicide in 2018, she was left trying to make sense of her daughter’s death.
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Nicole, or Coco as she was lovingly referred to by Jackie, was just 21 at the time of her death after being subjected to physical and online bullying for years.
Jackie Fox with Kathryn Thomas and Gerard Walsh. Pic: RTÉ
Speaking at an RTÉ launch event, the mum-of-three detailed how a group of individuals intent on making her daughter’s life a living hell subjected Nicole to both physical and online abuse. ‘But it was the online abuse that really got into Nicole’s head,’ Jackie said.
In her grief, Jackie attempted to understand the lack of legal infrastructure in place to protect the likes of her daughter from such cruelty and she decided she wanted to make a change in Nicole’s name.
Jackie Fox. Pic: RTÉ
After relentless campaigning, Coco’s Law came into being in 2021 and became the first law in Irish history in anybody’s name. ‘She must be so proud,’ Jackie said. ‘Coco’s legacy is going to be there forever and ever.’
Coco’s Law created two new offences which criminalise the non-consensual distribution of intimate images.
‘The one side of Coco’s Law is the protection side for the one that’s getting bullied… but unfortunately, I had to lose my daughter for other people to gain the law.’
Having lost her child in January, this time of year is always an exceptionally tough one for Jackie, and thinking about what she would like to say to Nicole now Jackie admitted: ‘I don’t think I’ve ever said this, but I would say how proud I am of her.’
Jackie Fox and Kathryn Thomas. Pic: RTÉ
‘Nicole went through the most disgusting, horrendous, horrific abuse that she could go through- she never wanted to leave me. She never wanted to go. She just couldn’t find a way to stay. And as heartbreaking as it is, as disgusting as it is to have to live my life without Nicole, I actually respect her decision.’
Jackie Fox. Pic: RTÉ
‘But it’s a real-life nightmare that I live every day that I’m not gonna wake up from.’
Premiering on RTÉ One on Monday, January 22nd, Jackie & Coco follows a bereaved mother’s journey to make online bullying a crime, as she fights to write it into Irish, and European law.
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