The sister of a murder victim is appealing to the community not to post pictures of the dead or dying via social media, recalling the time she saw a photograph of her brother on WhatsApp.

Leslieann Rochester spoke out after images emerged online on Monday night of Richard Thomas — the second road fatality of the year — lying dead on the ground after his accident that evening in Warwick.

When her brother, Michael Phillips, was shot dead outside Mid Atlantic Boat Club on October 14, 2012, Ms Rochester said photographs were distributed within minutes of the shooting, showing her brother dying.

“When it first happened, the family was totally distraught — you are not even in your right mind,” she told The Royal Gazette yesterday. “I heard the photos were going around but I didn’t see them.

“Then, exactly a month later, somebody called me and said, ‘the picture of your brother is going around again, everybody is getting it and people are angry.’

“I asked her to send it to me on my WhatsApp. She asked me if I was sure I wanted to see it, as it was very gruesome, and I said, ‘yes, please send it.’

“I will never forget it. I was in the Shopping Centre and I literally snapped when I saw it. I just started screaming and screaming and I called the Police.

“The person literally stood over him and took a close-up of my brother dying in the yard and sent it around immediately.

“That is how a lot of people found out about my brother. I know a lot of his friends told me that is how they found out and I think some extended family members as well. People were angry.

“When you stood over my brother and took pictures, did you try to save him? Did you call the ambulance? Did you call the Police and give a statement? What did you do? You just took time out to take pictures and send them out.”

Asked what her message would be to anyone who has shared, or who would consider posting, such images on social media or making them public, Ms Rochester said: “Please stop because it is bad enough when it happens and we have to suffer.

“The heartbreak of losing them and then when you see the pictures all over social media, it is horrible. It is not the right way for the family to find out that their family member has been murdered or died in a road accident, or however it is.

“It is not nice. It makes the pain twice as hard. People have become heartless. I feel for the family of the road victim [Richard Thomas] and I pray to God that that picture isn’t how they found out. That is the last image a family member wants to see.”

There is no legislation in place banning the distribution of such images but Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva said that, whether the action was legal or not, “it is unhelpful at best; at worst, it is cruel and disturbing”.

He added: “Every right-thinking person will condemn such behaviour.

“We have already made a few statements about the inappropriate use of social media as a tool to incite tensions and anxieties, as well as to distribute victims’ names before the families are notified.

“The circulation of graphic photographs that attack the victims’ rights to privacy and deprive families of their dignity are also in that category.”