Private school pupil, 16, killed himself after nude photo blackmail by 'scammer from Nigeria'
26 February 2024, 10:37
A private school pupil killed himself after he was blackmailed on social media over nude photographs, an inquest heard.
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Dinal De Alwis, 16, went to Whitgift School, Croydon and hoped to study economics at Cambridge after receiving straight A*s in his GCSEs.
But after he returned from a family holiday in October 2022, he killed himself, having received two nude photographs of himself from a blackmailer on social media.
He left his home at 2am and was seen on CCTV falling to his death an hour later.
A blackmailer had demanded that Dinal paid £100 to stop them from sending the images to his followers.
His family believe a girl may have taken the images with him before they ended up in the wrong hands.
The blackmailer contacted him on Snapchat, the Daily Mail reports.
The inquest heard the blackmailer wrote: “So you think blocking me can stop me? What do you want me to do – you want me to send it to all of your followers? Why can’t you just pay me? £100?”
Police and the National Crime Agency told his family they were unable to trace the blackmailer but that it appeared they were operating from Nigeria.
His father told the inquest into his death that he thought Dinal wanted to avoid the shame of the photographs going public.
The inquest ruled that Dinal died as a result of suicide.
Mr De Alwis told the Daily Mail: “Dinal had had some girlfriends, he’d been very open with me – I’d warned him to be careful. The grieving is never-ending.
“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”
A fund has been set up on behalf of Dinal by his friends to raise money in his memory for Young Minds, a charity which supports the mental health of children and young people.
For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org
