Family 'horrified' by scam livestream page for funeral of Northamptonshire house fire victim

ITV News

3 days ago

The family of a house fire victim say they are "horrified" after a fake livestream page was set up to scam mourners on the day of his funeral.
Louie Thorn, 23, died on 28 March in the blaze in Rushton, Northamptonshire, along with Emma Conn, 30, and Mayci Fox, 4.
His funeral took place in Rothwell on Friday, as Mr Thorn's family revealed a scammer had attempted to profit from his death.
The page offered followers a live stream of the funeral behind a pay-wall and asked followers "if you can afford you can donate".
The page was deleted later on Friday.
It comes after an ITV News investigation found hundreds of similar scamming funeral livestream pages had been created on Facebook for other high-profile deaths.
The father of Louie Thorn said he was made aware there were several links posted ahead of the funeral.
Lee Thorn said: "Awful. Not just one, three. What is that about? There are some awful, cruel people in this world.
"People trying to profiteer off a sick situation like this, it's horrific. What are people about, why do these people exist?
"I've had three of them, hopefully they all got pulled down pretty quickly. Just terrible. There's some sick people out there isn't there?"
Police said anyone who has been affected by the fraudulent page should report it to Facebook.
A Northamptonshire Police spokesperson said: 'To take advantage of such a tragic incident is appalling and we understand the distress this has caused the family of Louie Thorn.
'There are always unscrupulous people on social media whose sole aim of being on such platforms is to charge for a service which doesn't exist.
"However, offering live streams of funerals in exchange for money is despicable.
'We would advise Louie's family and as many people as possible affected by such a fraud to report the page to Facebook so they can take action to remove the fraudulent content.
'We would also urge anyone who has fallen victim to any online fraud to report it to their local police force or Action Fraud.'
Facebook has been approached for comment.
Louie Thorn died in the house fire at a converted railway station in Rushton in March, along with four-year-old Mayci Fox and her mother Emma Conn.
Investigators said the fire was not suspicious and police confirmed there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. A fire which killed three people including a four-year-old girl and her mother was not suspicious, say investigators.
The family of Emma Conn remembered her and her daughter Mayci as 'two peas in a pod', while Louie Thorn was remembered as "genuine, caring, kind and trusting".
An inquest opening gave their provisional causes of death as inhalation of smoke, pending further tests.