Hope Barden

Hope Barden, 21, was found asphyxiated in March 2018 after an online relationship with a pub landlord, Jerome Dangar, who was later jailed for possession of extreme pornography. Dangar, 45, from north Cornwall, was arrested in connection with her death, but he was found dead at HMP Dartmoor on 15 April 2019 and never faced charges. Staffordshire Police had submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider charging him with manslaughter over her death.

Hope, from Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, was earning extra money working in the online adult industry as a camgirl. Her mother, Kate Barden, said her daughter was "left to die" and described the case as a landmark one that might have been had Dangar still been alive. Officers proved Dangar was online while she died on 15 March 2018, and there was no attempt to raise any emergency response to the danger he had put her in.

Kate Barden warned that "anyone with daughters or other relatives involved in this terrible industry must be aware of the risk of harm." She added, "A duty of care exists in any relationship. If someone is obviously in danger, one has a legal obligation to take steps to help. In this tragic case, Hope was left to die." Hope, an English woman with brown hair and brown eyes, had a slim build and was born in 1997 in Burton-upon-Trent. Her death has raised questions about online safety and duty of care in virtual relationships. She died at age 20 or 21.