How Facebook Refused To Take Down Pictures Of Murdered Hollie Gazzard With Her Killer

Last nights Channel 5 documentary Stalked: Murder In Slow Motion revisited Hollie's tragic murder by her boyfriend in 2014

Hollie Gazzard

by Jess Commons |
Updated on

In 2014, 20-year-old Hollie Gazzard was killed by her ex-boyfriend Asher Maslin when he stabbed her at the salon she worked at in Gloucester.

Last night, Channel 5 aired a documentary entitled Stalked: Murder In Slow Motion which showed a detailed timeline of what happened to Hollie Gazzard in the lead-up to her death. The documentary tells the story of how Hollie met Asher Maslin, from the moment she fell in love with him after he approached her for a date at a bar that she worked at to when he became violent, abusive, controlling and eventually killed her at the salon where she worked as a hairdresser.

Throughout the documentary, numerous red-flags for Maslin's behavior were raised including incidents where he physically assaulted Hollie at the Notting Hill carnival to occasions where he followed her home, threw a drink over her threatened her with violent texts. After she ended the relationship, Maslin took stole her bank card and withdrew £300 from Hollie's account and sent messages threatening physical violence and to attack her with acid.

Initially following Hollie's murder, Facebook refused to remove 9 pictures of the 20-year-old with Maslin from her memoralised Facebook page. Her father Nick asked Facebook to remove several pictures of Hollie with her killer from her Facebook page but initially had his request denied by the social media site. 'It makes me feel sick when I look at those photos, and to be truthful I try not to go into her Facebook site as I get quite distressed by it.' He told the BBC, adding that it was 'a real shame' that family and friends couldn't view Hollie's profile without seeing those pictures.

Asher Maslin was sentenced to life in prison after his attack on Hollie which occurred after he went to confront her, armed with a knife, about why she'd ended their relationship. Nine pictures remained of the two before the attack on Hollie's memorialized profile.

Facebook's rules about what happens to peoples' profiles after you die are outlined on their website. According to them the word 'remembering' will be shown next to the individual's name and, most crucially in this case, they say 'content the person shared (ex: photos, posts) stays on Facebook and is visible to the audience it was shared with'. Nothing can be changed on the account unless they've appointed a 'legacy contact' - or someone that gets admin rights to your account after you die.

Following the statement over 11,000 people signed a petition to get the pictures taken down and Facebook removed them. Her father Nick Gazzard told the BBC "We are delighted to confirm that today, Facebook have removed the offending photos from Hollie's memorialised Facebook account and now we can all browse her photos without getting upset." adding "We were very pleasantly surprised and humbled by the amount of support we received."

Facebook said: "Through our memorialisation policies we aim to help families find ways to remember and celebrate their loved ones on Facebook whilst respecting the privacy of the deceased," adding "in this case we received a report of copyright infringement, and we removed the reported content in response to that report."

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Follow Jess on Twitter @Jess_Commons

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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