Media reports that a male youth posted insensitive remarks on Facebook relating to the death of Gilgandra’s Jordana Hammond-Bamblett have been met with concern by local and State politicians.
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The four-year-old went missing in the Castlereagh River on February 16. A search by police and volunteers recovered her body two days later.
On Thursday AAP reported it had been told by sources in the town that a teenage boy had posted a racist and insensitive message on his Facebook page soon after the body of the little girl was found.
According to the report police were “making inquiries regarding any possible offences”.
The report said police had removed the boy and his family from Gilgandra.
Orana Local Area Command’s Inspector Matt Scott said yesterday that the “matter has been reported to police and is under investigation”.
Gilgandra mayor Doug Batten said the comments were “immature and insensitive”.
“It was a very insensitive act, I am sure the person is regretting it now and will for a long time,” he said.
He quashed any suggestion the incident had stirred racial tensions in the tight knit community.
“Not in Gil. The whole community got behind a couple of great parents,” he said, referring to the funeral service for Jordana.
Barwon MP Kevin Humphries said the incident was “obviously disappointing”.
Mr Humphries said people disrupting that process amounted to being “annoying for the purpose of being annoying”.
The incident in Gilgandra comes after two other similar acts in the past fortnight.
Mr Humphries said it was a problematic issue which had no clear remedy.
“Some people would argue the net’s not designed to be censored but in cases like this it certainly needs to be looked at,” he said.
“The operators of these websites perhaps need to show more responsibility for what goes on there.”
The MP also said such comments could land their authors into court.
“If it can be traced back they are leaving themselves open to litigation,” he said.