According to Mail Online, Dinal De Alwis, aged 16 was a keen footballer and rugby player. He had earned a clean sheet of A* GCSEs and just started sixth form with hopes of studying at Cambridge, when he was contacted on messaging app Snapchat by someone, apparently from Nigeria.
A teenager, identified as Dinal De Alwis has committed suicide after he was being threatened by Nigerian scammers who said they would blackmail him if he refused to send them the sum of £100.
According to Mail Online, Dinal De Alwis, aged 16 was a keen footballer and rugby player. He had earned a clean sheet of A* GCSEs and just started sixth form with hopes of studying at Cambridge, when he was contacted on messaging app Snapchat by someone, apparently from Nigeria.
He was sent nude photos of himself and told they would be sent to 'all his online followers' unless he paid £100.
Instead, he left his family home and recorded a brief video saying he planned to kill himself.
His father Kaushallya De Alwis mourned his death on Sunday night and told the Daily Mail that he did not want any other family to suffer as they had.
“He messaged my wife and I to say he loved us, and he told his two brothers that he loves them, and said they need to "look after mum and dad,” he was quoted by Daily Mail.
Dinal attended Whitgift School in Croydon, near the family's detached home in Sutton, south London, where boarding costs may approach £48,000 and notable alumni include former England rugby star Danny Cipriani and illusionist Derren Brown.
Following his GCSE success, he began studying for the International Baccalaureate in sixth form and was the school's top performer in English and economics.
He had attended an open day at Cambridge, where he intended to study economics.
However, following dinner at home in October 2022, just days after a family holiday in Majorca during the fall half-term break, he abruptly requested his mother to 'just leave me alone'.
Only later did it become clear that he received the two nude images of himself at 1 a.m., maybe as a result of previous interactions with the blackmailer.
South London Coroner's Court heard that the blackmailer – who is also thought to have had other victims – wrote: 'So you think blocking me can stop me? What do you want me to do – you want me to send to all of your followers? Why can't you just pay me? £100?'
Dinal responded that he had assumed the pictures had already been distributed.
He slipped out of the house at 2am and recorded a brief video of himself walking down a suburban street. Little more than an hour later his body was found after he had fallen to his death, which was caught on CCTV
Police and the National Crime Agency admitted to Dinal's parents that they were unable to trace the blackmailer – but said that he appeared to have been operating from Nigeria.
Mr De Alwis wept as he told the coroner: 'Dinal was the most caring son. He was bright.
“He got straight A*s in all of his subjects at GCSEs and was top of the school for English and economics.
“We come from Sri Lanka, so we were so proud to hear he was so good at English. He was brave. He played for the football and rugby teams at Whitgift School. He never asked for anything from us. He was always happy with what he had.
“His loss is the biggest possible loss. It is so incredibly painful. The fact that he ended his life in this way... the world is so cruel.”
Mr De Alwis added: “He didn't show any sort of unhappiness. I think he wanted to avoid any shame from the images going public. I wish he had spoken to us.
“He had always been so open in the past. But I think that when things are happening online, live, it feels like there is no time. He did nothing wrong.”
Mr De Alwis said he thought a girl may have taken the pictures while with Dinal, and that they ended up in the wrong hands.
But he was also aware blackmailers have been known to pose as attractive girls online, sending erotic pictures and demanding naked 'selfies' in return, before demanding cash to keep them private. Mr De Alwis told the 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'm very worried about my younger son – he's big time into all this social media, and young people underestimate the dangers around them. There must be ways of tracking these things and parents should have access. I don't want this to happen to anyone else.”
The inquest ruled Dinal's death a suicide.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/