Facebook photos of Hollie Gazzard with her killer 'causing distress'

A refusal by Facebook to delete photographs of a murdered woman posing with her killer ex-boyfriend is causing her father to "feel sick".

Hollie Gazzard's ex-boyfriend was jailed for life for murdering her

Images of Hollie Gazzard with Asher Maslin, who stabbed her 14 times in February last year, are still viewable on Miss Gazzard's Facebook profile.

Nick Gazzard said the nine pictures were causing distress and attempts to have them removed had failed.

Facebook told the BBC it was unable to help in this circumstance.

'Avoiding her profile'

According to the social media website, its policy is that when a profile is memorialised following someone's death, changes are not able to be made.

Hollie Gazzard, 20, was stabbed while working at Fringe Benefits and La Bella Beauty salon in Gloucester. She later died in hospital.

Five months after her murder, Maslin was sentenced to life in prison for carrying out the attack.

"It makes me feel sick when I look at those photos, and to be truthful I try not to go into her Facebook site as I get quite distressed by it" said Mr Gazzard.

Of the nine images, most are only viewable by those who were Facebook "friends" with Holly before her death.

The online profile was frozen after her death, with Mr Gazzard adding it was a "real shame" family and friends could not view it without seeing those nine pictures.

A Facebook spokesperson said: "We memorialise accounts to provide a place of remembrance and maintain the profile as it was when the person passed away.

"We understand in tragic cases such as this it may mean there are sometimes painful reminders but memorialised accounts are designed to preserve the privacy of the deceased."

Gary Rycroft, chair of the digital assets working group of the Law Society, advised Mr Gazzard to write to Facebook withdrawing the copyright of the photographs, which were taken by Hollie, and asking for the specific pictures to be removed.

For the full story, watch Inside Out West on BBC One (West) at 19:30 GMT or via the iPlayer for a month afterwards.