Facebook has bowed to pressure and finally removed the photos of a murdered woman with her killer ex-boyfriend after a campaign by her father was backed by 11,000 people.
Nine images of hairdresser Hollie Gazzard with Asher Maslin, who stabbed her 14 times, were still visible on her profile page to the distress of her bereaved family.
Maslin, 22, murdered her in front of horrified customers and colleagues in a salon in Gloucester last year and is now serving life with a minimum of 24 years.
But when Hollie’s father Nick asked Facebook to remove the upsetting photos the social media giant refused.
They said they had a policy that when a profile is memorialised after someone’s death any changes were not able to be made.
Angry Nick launched a petition urging the website to rethink and after two weeks and 11,567 signatures Facebook have made a U-turn and removed the photos.
Hollie’s family said: “We are delighted to confirm that Facebook have removed the offending photos from Hollie’s memorialised Facebook account and now we can all browse her photos without getting upset.
“We would like to express our sincere thanks to the 11,000+ who kindly signed our petition and those who also contacted Facebook direct and asked for photos to be taken down.
“We are also very grateful to the media for their assistance in highlighting this problem, to the Web Sheriff for all their help and to Facebook for finally showing compassion and listening to the family’s wishes.”
Hollie, 20, started dating Maslin in February 2013 but ended their romance a year later on Valentine’s Day because he was violent towards her.
Gloucester Crown Court heard he bombarded her with angry texts saying he was going to “smash her house up and her face in”.
Police attempted to arrest Maslin for stealing money from Hollie’s account and discovered he was visiting London where he was taking crack cocaine.
He pawned a DVD player and bought a 12-inch carving knife for £3 and stormed into the Fringe Benefits and La Bella beauty salon in Gloucester.
There he lifted petite Hollie with one hand before punching her to the ground and repeatedly stabbing her to death.
Facebook denied the petition was the reason for removing the photos and said the decision followed a report of copyright infringement.
A spokesman 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.
“In this case we received a report of copyright infringement, and we removed the reported content in response to that report.”
