A former American nurse has been sentenced to 360 days in prison for encouraging a Coventry man to commit suicide over the Internet.
A judge has decided 48-year old William Melchert-Dinkel, from Minnesota, coaxed both Mark Drybrough and a Canadian woman into killing themselves by posing as a female nurse on an online forum and giving them instructions.
32-year old Mark (pictured above) was found hanged by his sister Carol in Hillfields in 2005.
Elaine – Mark’s mum – says it was only when her daughter was clearing through Mark’s things that she discovered something that unsettled her:
“Carol checked his computer to see if he’d got any worries, also if he’d got any friends we should tell, and she came across that conversation, two months’ conversation.
“The chat was between Mark and someone else from the forum and included in some of the transcripts was a step-by-step guide on how he could hang himself.”
In November, Rice County District Judge Thomas Neuville rejected claims that what Mr Melchert-Dinkel had said to them online was free speech and protected by law.
He also admitted entering into fake suicide pacts with 10 separate individuals, five of whom he believed had killed themselves.
Melchert-Dinkel has been told he will serve just under a year in prison but he is expected to appeal the decision so the term has been suspended in the meantime.
As well as a jail sentence, he has been ordered to pay an 18,000 dollar fine – equivalent to 10,980 English pounds and also 30,000 dollars or 18,183 pounds to the families of his two victims.
Melchert-Dinkel will also for the next 10 years have to spend time at his local police station on the anniversaries of Mark’s and Canadian woman Nadia Kajouji’s deaths.
Mark’s mum Elaine says she is happy with the sentence and satisfied he has learnt his lesson:
Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 1:24 pm