New Delhi: In a bizarre incident, a 42-year-old man hanged himself live over the internet. The case is being seen as Britain's first 'cyber suicide'.
Kevin Whitrick—father of two—took his life after being motivated by dozens of chatroom users from across the world, who initially believed he was only kidding, The Daily Mail reported Saturday.
As the chat room loggers watched in horror, Whitrick climbed onto a chair, smashed through a ceiling and then hanged himself with a piece of rope.
Stunned by what they had witnessed - broadcast on a popular chatroom website used by millions of people across the globe - users immediately contacted the police. Officers rushed to the electrician's home in the Wellington area of Shropshire (UK) within minutes, smashing down the door to try to save him. But despite their efforts to save him, he was pronounced dead at the scene. It emerged that Whitrick had been suffering from depression after being badly injured in a car crash last year.
Friends said that the breakdown of his marriage with wife, Paula - with whom he had 12-year-old twins - and the recent death of his father had also been causing him some distress.
Whitrick told users of web-chat site PalTalk what he was going to do, two-hours before he killed himself on Wednesday night. He was logged on with around 50 other users to a special "insult" chatroom where people "have a go at each other".
Distraught users of the site said that they felt sick and had previously thought the web broadcast was a hoax. Whitrick told friends in the internet chat room of his plans to kill himself but, thinking he was joking, they egged him on telling him to make sure the his webcam was on.
"One chatter said: 'F***ing do it, get on with it, get it round your neck. For F***'s sake he can't even do this properly'," the internet user was quoted by The Daily Mail.
Another user who did not wish to be named said: "When Kevin stepped off the chair and was left dangling, the mood in the chatroom changed and people began to realise what they had just seen. Shortly after, moderators on the site closed the feed from Kevin's webcam.
The case appears to echo that of Brandon Vedas, a 21 year-old from Phoenix, Arizona, who committed suicide online using a mix of alcohol and prescription medication. In his case people in the chat room egged the young man on, while others tried desperately to find his address.
Local MP for the Wrekin, Mark Pritchard, told the news daily that this is a “very sad and rare incident,” adding “it is important that the use of the internet in this death is fully investigated."
With excerpts from The Daily Mail
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