A teenage boy was sentenced in a British court on Friday for assuming false personas in an Internet chat room in order to induce an online friend to try to kill him. The boy who was convicted, 14 at the time of the events in question, fooled his friend, then 15, with an "elaborate matrix" of fictional identities, including that of a spy, in the chat room, the court was told.
Acting on the "spy's" orders, the older boy tried to kill the younger one, stabbing him in the chest and stomach in June of last year, leaving wounds that required hospitalization.
The court, which identified the older boy only as "Boy A" and the younger one as "Boy B," sentenced them both on Friday.
Boy A, who had pleaded guilty to attempted murder, was sentenced to two years of supervision to be overseen by probation officers, police and social workers.
Boy B, who had pleaded guilty to obstructing the course of justice and incitement to murder, was given three years of supervision, was barred from chat rooms and was told he could only have access to Internet under adult supervision.
"It's staggering to be dealing with a case that arises out of a boy's invention of false personalities, false relationships and events arranged for his own killing at the hands of a boy who he had met via an Internet chat room," Judge David Maddison said while sentencing the teens in Manchester Crown Court.
Belinda Sproston, an Internet expert, said the case showed how confused children can become in conversations on Internet chat rooms about the difference between fantasy and reality.
According to testimony, Boy B persuaded the older boy to carry out the attack by pretending to be a middle-age female spy who would reward him with sex and money and help him become a spy himself.
Detective Chief Inspector Julian Ross, who led the investigation for the Manchester police, said he believed that Boy B had launched the scam in an effort to commit suicide.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
RSS