A father took his own life with a fatal overdose after cruel Facebook taunts tipped him over the edge, his family claim.

Kenny Gregg, 27, committed suicide earlier this year, leaving his two-year-old daughter Esme fatherless and his family devastated.

His younger sister Carolyn said Mr Gregg, a chef from Dundonald, Northern Ireland, was targeted by an online troll and found dead by his mother Ann on January 3.

Carolyn, 25, has now started an online petition with the aim of persuading the Government to bring in laws to help put a stop to social media attacks.

The young father's family say one post in particular, which received numerous shares the day before he died, could have been what led him to make the drastic decision to take his own life.

She added: 'If it wasn't for those comments on Facebook, we truly believe that Kenny would still be alive today. Instead, his two-year-old daughter Esme has been left without a father.'  

Mr Gregg sent messages to his sister, and his girlfriend, telling them he loved them before swallowing his mother's prescription painkillers.

Grieving mother Ann revealed that she was making her way to his attic bedroom shouting his name before discovering her son in his bed.

She then started shaking him, trying to rouse him, but saw that his lips were blue and she became 'absolutely frantic'.

Ann tried to wake her son with CPR for roughly five minutes before running out into the street screaming for help, she said.

Mr Gregg was pronounced dead at the scene, with a post mortem found he had taken a cocktail of his mother's medication.

His last words to his mother were when he told her he loved her the previous night.  

Carolyn said that the family did not know about the online comments until after his death - and the day after Mr Gregg passed away someone had posted on Facebook that he had 'got what he deserved'.

Mr Gregg's family are now calling for stricter social media moderation, with Carolyn claiming there should be a harder line on users posting 'maliciously', and there need to be 'a lot more moderators'.

-Daily Mail