Family of murdered Bristol teenager slams YouTube and Snapchat over ‘torture’ of online rap videos

10 March 2025, 07:00 | Updated: 10 March 2025, 07:29

Online Safety Day is today, Monday 10th March from 7am to midnight on LBC, available across the UK on Global Player on your smart speaker, iOS or Android device; on DAB digital radio and TV, at LBC.co.uk and in London on 97.3 FM.

The families of two murder victims have expressed their “disgust” at the failure of some of the world’s biggest tech sites to remove rap videos featuring their loved ones’ killers and glorifying their murders.

What’s more, the same families have opened up about how social media is being exploited by the killers and their associates to send them taunting and intimidating messages - including rape threats towards a fouteen year-old girl.

Their experiences pile pressure on social media companies over the content they permit on their sites - as LBC embarks on a day of coverage dedicated to the issue of online safety.

Last January, fifteen year-old Mason Rist and his best friend Max Dixon, 16, were stabbed to death in an unprovoked machete attack in Bristol, just yards away from the front door of his family home.

The boys had popped out for pizza, but were murdered by a gang in a case of mistaken identity.

Mason’s family have revealed to LBC that their pain has been compounded by videos circulating online of one of Mason’s killers rapping about his death.

Kodishai Wescott, 17, was handed a life sentence in December for his involvement in Mason’s murder. Yet, in a video published on Instagram and Snapchat, Wescott appears to be rapping about Mason’s murder from his cell.

Speaking for the first time, Mason’s sister, Chloe Dore, slammed the lack of action taken by these platforms to remove Wescott’s content, saying it is “torture” for her family: “I just want it to be removed so I don’t have to torture myself hearing how they’ve stabbed someone… I don’t want my kids in the future to be curious and want to look at videos and think ‘oh, that’s the person who stabbed my uncle.’”

As well as rapping from his cell, another music video featuring Wescott has recently been published on YouTube. The lyrics glamourise gang culture and it was recorded prior to his arrest.

Chloe worries that the existence of these videos on platforms such as YouTube could persuade impressionable youngsters to become involved in gang violence.

“[The video] is on Youtube for everyone to look at. Children could be encouraged by it - they might start rapping about weapons and violence, and then it only goes so far before they start to act on it,” she said.

Next week, a host of new powers will be made available to the social media regulator, Ofcom, to protect children online as part of the Online Safety Act.

They include placing a legal responsibility on companies to remove material that incites violence, and implement additional safety measures to prevent children accessing content which glorifies violence.

Chloe is telling her family’s story to raise awareness of the emotional toll such content causes victims’ loved ones, and to encourage authorities to clamp down on the type of videos published by Wescott.

Chloe’s mum, Nikki Knight, said "My son’s killer is still online, on his social media account, on his Instagram account still doing rap videos about what he’s done,” Nikki said, adding that the failure to remove such content is “disgusting”.

With palpable anger in her voice, Nikki lamented the fact the Ministry of Justice did not inform her about the videos.

“This person is still making videos about my son’s murder [and] I don’t get told… Why don’t I get told? Who are [the MoJ] protecting: are you protecting the criminal here? Because you’re certainly not protecting me.”

Nikki and Chloe’s ordeal is not an isolated incident.

LBC also spoke to Lisa Theobald, whose twenty year-old son was murdered in Doncaster in 2022. His friend, seventeen year-old Janis Kozlovskis, was also killed in the incident.

In October, a music video emerged with lyrics appearing to reference Ryan’s murder, mocking his family with lyrics such as: “Wonder how much the funeral cost when you bury your sh*t in a box?”

In the same video, a masked man presents a phone towards the camera which appears to show Ryan’s killer, Amrit Jhagra, smiling on a video call from his prison cell.

“As you watch it, it refers to Ryan and Janis, how much the funeral cost and things like that - which does hurt. I’ve reported it twice and still nothing’s been taken down,” Lisa told LBC.

Lisa and her fourteen year-old daughter have also been sent threatening messages online. It is her belief that Jhagra is coordinating the abuse from his cell.

“He’s not just had a phone [in prison] once - he’s had a phone three times we know of. We were sent screenshots of him being on Snapchat,” Lisa continued.

“A lot of things have been said to my daughter - threats have been made… they’re all associates of Jhagra. My fourteen year-old - I can’t let her walk around this area at all.”

“They’ve told my daughter they’re going to rape her, tie her up and backshot her… [she’s] fourteen years old - I can’t let her walk around this area at all.”

Nikki has also revealed that members of her family have received “sick” messages from Mason’s killer on social media.

The Ministry of Justice condemned the perpetrators “gloating” about their crimes and stressed they were working hard to remove harmful content. The department added that “any offender who is caught using a phone or social media in prison, including with extra time behind bars.”

Presented with Nikki’s experience, Ofcom’s CEO Dame Melanie Dawes expressed her sympathies with the family and committed to reviewing whether the videos fall afoul of its rules.

Approached by LBC about the existence of these videos, and the fact that they could be accessed without proof of age, YouTube did not comment on either case. The company does, however, have guidelines on hate speech and a function allowing users to report videos they feel are inappropriate.

Meanwhile, Snapchat stressed that the glorification of violent behaviour on the platform is “strictly prohibited”, and pointed to its in-app reporting feature. It is understood that Wescott’s video has now been removed.