Irish police will reportedly question eight suspected internet trolls over the relentless cyberbullying of teen Irish suicide victims Ciara Pugsley and Erin Gallagher.
Before their deaths the two girls were participants on the controversial website Ask.fm, which has reportedly supplied the IP addresses of the attackers who posted abusive comments before the girls' deaths.
Ciara, 15, from County Leitrim, took her own life in September last year. Erin, 13, from County Donegal, died five weeks later.
According to the Evening Herald, Ask.fm has traced five IP addresses used to send hateful messages to Erin and at least three in Ciara's case.
Although the girls' deaths are unrelated, both were linked to a campaign of cyberbullying on the Latvian-based social media site, which allows members to post their comments anonymously.
The website has reportedly 'cooperated fully' with Irish police who are preparing files for separate coroners' inquests. Officers are now preparing to interview the suspects identified by their IP addresses.
'The technology and the know-how needed is fairly straight forward and a number of people will be interviewed and statements will be taken before the inquests,' a source told the Herald.
The Latvian-based website announced this week that it has been fully cooperating with Irish authorities investigating the deaths of Ciara and Erin. 'This included passing on details of the IP addresses used for making comments,' a spokesman told the press.
The site repeated that although it is possible to post anonymously there, in almost all cases it is possible for Ask.fm itself to identify users.
The company has reportedly been left reeling after major advertisers withdrew over concerns they could be associated with the bad publicity the site has attracted in recent months.
Earlier this week Erin's mother Lorraine told Channel 4 News in the UK that her daughter had actually named the site in her suicide note.
Meanwhile an Irish police spokeswoman said investigations into the two Irish deaths are continuing.
'The investigation for the coroner's court in relation to both deaths are ongoing and therefore we are not in a position to make any comments,' she added.
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