Social media bosses were summoned by the French government after it emerged the terrorist who beheaded a teacher may have been led to his victim by an online campaign of harassment. Samuel Paty, 47, was murdered with a butcher’s knife in the street about three hundred metres from the school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine at around 5pm on Friday. The married father was targeted for using cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a class on freedom of expression A week earlier, one man who said his daughter was in Mr Paty's class recorded a video shared on social media in which he branded the teacher a thug and appealed to others to "join forces and say 'stop, don't touch our children'". Mr Paty’s name and school address were also put on the internet after he showed the cartoons of a nude Mohammed in class. He suggested any Muslims who might be offended leave the room before showing the images. Islam prohibits images of the prophet, considering that they lead to idolatry. The killer had approached pupils in the street and asked them to point out his victim, anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said on Saturday. An 18-year-old Chechen-Russian, named as Abdoulakh Anzorov, posted a photo of his victim’s severed head on Twitter where it was seen by some of his pupils before he was shot dead by police. One parent Delphine, whose daughter was in Mr Paty's class last year, told The Sunday Telegraph: "My daughter has access to so many concerning websites. She saw the images of the body online, and many of the kids did too. That's what worries me most."
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