Qld child suicide: Third bullied girl to die in three months

A “beautiful and intelligent” 12-year-old girl who took her own life after relentless bullying online and at school has become the latest tragic addition to the state’s grim roll call.

Adiel Boyd, 12, is being remembered as a remarkable girl

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A 12-year-old Townsville girl has tragically taken her own life after relentless bullying online and at school in the third child suicide in Queensland in as many months.

Adiel Boyd’s grieving family have revealed the torment she faced in the schoolyard and online, calling on the community to rally together to protect vulnerable children.

The Aitkenvale State School student and the youngest of four siblings died by suicide four days after Christmas.

She joins a growing number of Australian children who have taken their own lives.

Brisbane Lourdes Hill student Ella Catley-Crawford died by suicide in November after she became the victim of an online catfishing scheme orchestrated by other girls who shared her photos across social media.

In October, Bundaberg Shalom Catholic College student Isla Marschke, 14, took her own life after years of online torment.

Statistics from the Queensland Family and Child Commission showed in the past financial year 19 kids aged 17 and under died by suicide.

Adiel’s mother, Victoria Boyd, said she wanted to honour her daughter’s memory by raising awareness of suicide prevention and cyber-bullying among young people.

“Children are lost in social media, it’s the most dangerous tool for a parent because there is a closed space there that I really, really try hard to get into but it’s a closed space, social media,” Ms Boyd said.

Adiel Boyd

“That is where it was all occurring, in the school grounds, on social media. She was being bullied by her friends.

“She was just too beautiful and she just couldn’t comprehend.”

Ms Boyd said more needed to be done to combat cyber-bullying and help remind young children that they are loved and valued.

“We need to take care of them,” she said.

“We need to look after them. We need to let them know that they are loved. We need to let them know they are cared for, we need to let the children know that there is love there.

“They need to feel that compassion from everyone.”

Adiel’s death comes after the Online Safety Amendment Bill 2024 passed through parliament requiring “age‐restricted social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under 16 years old from having accounts”.

The bill was passed in the wake of The Courier-Mail’s Let Them Be Kids campaign, which advocated for restricted social media use for children under 16, following a disturbing rise in teen suicides in Australia linked to social media use.

Ms Boyd said her little girl was “close to perfection” and excelled at school, played multiple instruments and spoke three languages.

“She was a remarkable little girl, remarkable,” Ms Boyd said.

“She was very bright, very intelligent, and she was very loving. She loved everyone.

Ella Catley-Crawford

Isla Marschke

“Adiel was such a bright girl and everyone that she knew in her life had a big impact on both parties, on Adiel and the person she interacted with.

“She was the baby of us all.”

A devastated Ms Boyd said the whole extended family were heartbroken by the sudden loss, with the reality of her passing still not feeling real.

“It’s very shocking, none of us can believe this has happened. Not Adiel,” her grieving mother said.

Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Advocate Grace Sholl said more needed to be done to combat the issue of cyber bullying leading to suicides.

“It’s really disappointing. Consistently for a number of years, we have seen a number of suicide deaths with young people, in relation to bullying, particularly social media bullying,” she said.

“It kind of shows that we’re still not getting it right, that measures put in place are not working effectively.

“We’ve been doing anti-bullying campaigns in schools that haven’t been effective, they haven’t actually addressed the root cause of why young people bully each other and that also leads to adulthood.”

Adiel’s older sister Tameka has created a GoFundMe page, which has reached over $7000 in donations to help support the family and help lay Adiel in her final resting place, writing on the page that her little sister “left a birthmark on everybody that she knew in her 12 short years of life”.

Originally published as Qld child suicide: Third bullied girl to die in three months