Dad invites bullies to daughter’s funeral ‘to witness the devastation they caused’

A 14-year-old girl killed herself after cyber bullies targeted her in a campaign of abuse, and her father invited the bullies to her funeral so they could witness the devastation they caused.

In an emotional Facebook post, Amy Everett’s father challenged the teenager’s bullies to attend her funeral “to witness the complete devastation you have created”.

Amy, affectionately known as Dolly to her family, starred as the face of Australian hat company Akubra for an advert several years ago. Her devastated parents Tick and Kate spoke out about their daughter’s death in a heartfelt statement issued to Australian broadcaster ABC.

Since her death, the family from Australia’s Northern Territory have started a social media campaign to raise awareness of bullying and harassment, and hope to one day start a trust called Dolly’s Dream for bullied children.

They said: “Our daughter Dolly was the kindest, caring, beautiful soul, and she was always caring for animals, small children, other children at boarding school who were less fortunate than herself.”

The statement added: “Before Dolly died, she completed a drawing and wrote the words ‘stand up, speak even if your voice shakes’. This powerful message tells the dark, scary place our beautiful angel had traveled to. We are not concerned with the who or the why of who pushed our daughter to this point, we just want to save another family going through the sadness and tragedy that our family is experiencing.”

Akubra Hats also paid tribute to their former model in a Facebook post.

The company wrote: “We were shocked and distressed to hear of the passing of Dolly – the young girl many of you will recognise from our past Christmas adverts. Bullying of any type is unacceptable. It is up to us to stand up when we see any kind of bullying behaviour. Dolly could be anyone’s daughter, sister, friend.”