A man has admitted urging a vulnerable woman he met online to seriously self-harm and kill herself.
Tyler Webb, 22, told the woman, who cannot be named, to end her life so he could watch.
In his Telegram messages, he said she had nothing to live for and suggested various ways she could do it.
Webb, from Loughborough, is the first person in the country to be charged with encouraging suicide and one count of encouraging or assisting someone to seriously self-harm.
But despite that and Webb’s guilty plea, no details of his offending were outlined during the 15-minute hearing at Leicester Crown Court.
Webb sat with his head on a table and flanked by family members before running out of the room and not returning.
Alex Johnson, a specialist crown prosecutor in the Special Crime Division of the Crown Prosecution Service, said afterwards: ‘Tyler Webb contacted a vulnerable woman online and encouraged her to commit serious self-harm and to end her life.
‘He knew she was vulnerable and would act on his requests but went ahead with his persistent requests knowing she may well die.
‘Fortunately, his repeated and insistent suggestions did not result in a death.’
The CPS said on one occasion the woman followed Webb’s instruction to self-harm and sent a photo of her self-inflicted injury on another.
He threatened to block any further contact with her after getting frustrated by her unwillingness to end her own life at his repeated request during a 44-minute call in July last year.
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She reported what had happened to police and he was arrested at his Loughborough home by Leicestershire Police.
The CPS said their investigation proved Webb knew the victim was vulnerable as he had come across the woman in an online forum where people discussed mental health difficulties.
Investigators also uncovered an audio recording of a call made by the woman which showed his ‘persistent’ attempts to push her to do things.
They also found digital images and drawings depicting people ending their life, decapitations and sexual violence towards women.
Webb will be sentenced on July 4.
In a statement, Andy Burrows, the chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, which was set up in memory of 14-year-old Molly Russell from north-west London who took her own life after viewing thousands of images promoting suicide and self-harm, said: ‘Webb’s horrific crimes are part of a growing trend where vulnerable girls and women are being coerced into self-harm and suicide attempts online.
‘While new offences in the Online Safety Act helped secure Webb’s conviction, the reality is that Ofcom’s regulation of tech companies is failing to prevent the increasing threat of similar offences from taking place.
‘The Government must now step in with stronger online safety laws that can effectively tackle these sadistic crimes and protect vulnerable young people online.’
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