Fury has erupted after a sick photo of a shot teenager was posted on an internet tribute site.
A yob altered a picture of tragic Sophie Taylor to show a fake gunshot wound in the middle of her head. At the bottom of the picture is the words “Bang Bang”.
The “joke” comes a week after the 16-year-old was shot by her 18-year-old boyfriend Calum Murray in an accident. He killed himself moments later.
The picture was posted on a memorial page to Sophie on social networking site Facebook.
Horrified friends and family called in the police, who were investigating last night.
Dru McPherson, a friend of Sophie’s parents, said: “It’s disgusting, there’s no other way to describe it.
“I don’t know how someone could twist the knife into grieving parents like this. Whoever did it is obviously sick and twisted.
“Everyone around here is very unhappy about it. If the person responsible would like to come and visit us, instead of hiding behind keyboards, we’d be keen to show them how unamused we are.”
Sophie died last Tuesday as she cooked a meal for trainee gamekeeper Calum at a remote cottage near Tomintoul in the Highlands.
It’s thought he was cleaning a shotgun which accidentally killed Speyside High pupil Sophie.
Moments later Calum ran outside and turned the gun on himself. Their deaths sparked an outpouring of grief in the close-knit community.
A special page was set up on Facebook, RIP Sophie, were friends were able to leave emotional tributes to her. It’s got more than 8,000 friends.
However, it was attacked by a poster known only as Aye Gee Cee. They posted up the sick photo, which was quickly taken down.
However, they also set up other pages called “Sophie one hit kill Taylor”
and “Sophie one shot Taylor”.
They also used the picture as a profile picture on their own Facebook page, which was still in place last night.
It’s understood they also created a sick video and posted it on Youtube, but that was quickly taken down by the website.
Mr McPherson added: “We’ve got no idea who is behind this.
“But we’re pretty sure it’s no one who lives locally because there has been such a strength of feeling from everyone.
“This was a tragic accident which robbed us of two children with bright futures. There is nothing remotely funny about it.”
A spokeswoman for Grampian Police said: “We are aware and we are investigating at the moment.”
On the tribute page, poster Emma Mackenzie said: “I cannot believe all this is happening.
“It’s terrible how someone can be so heartless. They will get found and punished for their actions.”
Ann Taylor said: “Well, it was a lovely thought to have this page and look at the numbers Soph but Aunty Ann is over and out.
“I will not play audience to the, quite frankly, scum, who have decided to show their sociopathic attention seeking behaviour on this page.”
“I have your own page to be able to share memories and comments with the people who meant the most to you. I know you will help karma along from your elevated position.”
The incident came on the day Sophie and Calum’s funerals were announced.
His service will take place on Saturday at Leochel-Cushnie Church in Aberdeenshire.
While a celebration of Sophie’s life will be held at the Lecht ski centre on Monday afternoon. She will then be buried at Tomintoul Cemetery.
the sad thing is that the tribute page filled with love and memories became a page of hate for the person who did it, they got the attention they wanted 🙁
The police arent investigaten that much when there has been another page made up and the sick thing is who ever this person is didnt even know sophie
they said ” it’s a dead white teenage girl making the news
easy target ”
Now how sick can anyone get a poor helpless girl who has passed away after a shooten accident bieng tormented by someone who gets a thrill out of hurten grieven families xxx
I suppose it could have been an accident………but I doubt it.
As a person who handles firearms all the time, I can tell you this…
Cleaning a gun with a round in it is nearly impossible. Firstly you clean a firearm by opening the mechanism so the cleaning rod can penetrate from the muzzle to the breech. It would take a huge leap of faith to assume that anyone familiar with a firearm would do otherwise….but let’s suppose it were so.
The firearm (shotgun in this case) would have to be closed with a live round in place ready to be fired, now imagine the guy trying to plunge a cleaning rod down the barrel with a swab attached….the most likely position of the barrel direction would be either towards the ceiling, or perhaps at the wall knee level. This of course is completely ridiculous, because NO ONE cleans a gun like this.
Also, if he was doing this, and the gun went off, the forensics evidence would have shown the remains of the cleaning rod and swab or plunger at the scene, and possibly in the victim, and very likely he would have been wounded as well, since they would have been ejected with the round.
I’m sorry to say this….but in all likelyhood, this young man killed the girl and then committed suicide….why? we’ll never know, but cleaning gun accident? no way.