Mum's heartbreak after daughter kills self over sex video that sparked cruel memes

A devastated mum has revealed her heartbreak over the suicide of her daughter who was ridiculed and bullied after sex videos were leaked online. Revenge porn victim Tiziana Cantone hanged herself at her family home after the videos were posted on the internet without her permission.

The 31-year-old performed sex acts with unidentified men in the explicit footage, and sent it to five people, including her boyfriend, on WhatsApp.

It was then posted online, starting a chain of events that led to Tiziana being mocked in cruel memes and ultimately taking her own life.

In the video, Tiziana, from Mugnano, near Naples, could be heard saying: "Are you making a video? Bravo."

As the video went viral she was widely mocked for the phrase, which was used in a number of callous parodies and even printed on T-shirts. The mortified woman, who was being recognised on the street by people who had watched the footage, fell into a deep depression. She was inundated with abuse and was even forced to quit her job and change her name after the video was posted online in April 2015.

In September last year a court ordered the videos to be removed from websites and search engines, but Tiziana was ordered to pay £17,000 in legal costs. Tiziana, who was overwhelmed and suffering from the cruel treatment, killed herself while her mother, Maria Teresa Giglio, was at work. In the months following her daughter's death, Ms Giglio has forced herself to watch the footage, she told BBC News.

She believes her daughter was under the effect of drugs and the footage was posted online as a "criminal plan" to humiliate her.

Ms Giglio tearfully described the heartbreaking phone call she received from her sister-in-law, telling her to come home from work immediately, on the day her daughter died.

She has called on the Italian and European governments to draft laws that would help victims get private videos or other material removed from the internet quickly after being posted online without their permission. But so far no government has taken any action. Even though the footage has been ordered removed from several adult websites and search engines, it can still be found online.