A teenager has
been reported to have committed suicide after he was targeted on Facebook by a
love rival who threatened to stab him and set fire to his family home.
Callum
Moody-Chapman, 17, walked into the sea to drown in Maryport, Cumbria, after
another 17-year-old who had been dating his ex-girlfriend sent him threatening
messages online, an inquest heard.
The abuser,
who cannot be named for legal reasons, wrote: ‘I swear to God, shut your lips
or I’ll cut them off and feed them to you.
‘I’m going
to take a Stanley knife to your face…I’m sure you’re going to see a lot of my
mates. I’ve already got four lads who want to stamp on your head when I’m finished.’
Simon Ward,
assistant coroner for north and west Cumbria, said the cyber-bullying was ‘by
far the most significant aspect of this case’.
‘It’s clear
to me that Callum was being harassed. It’s all too easy with social media these
days to pursue a campaign like that, sometimes with terrible consequences,’ he
said.
Callum was
visiting family in Maryport last year when he went missing on December 15.
On the
morning he went disappeared the teenager had a Facebook conversation with the
boy, who wrote: ‘You’re f***ing dead.’
Callum later
phoned his brother and dad apologising for ‘messing up his life’ and did not
return to his aunt’s house that evening. His body was found by a walker on the
beach two days later.
His mother,
Nikki Moody, said the laws around cyber-bullying need to be revised to prevent
future tragedies.
‘Callum
would be alive today had it not been for his Facebook abuse,’ she told the
Mirror.
‘The law
needs changing around cyber-bullying so people doing it think twice before
saying these terrible things.’
The teen’s
abuser admitted assault and an offence under the Malicious Communication Act.
He was given an eight-month referral order.
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