The parents of a Scots teenager who committed suicide after falling prey to sextortion have made a direct appeal to criminals in Nigeria to stop “terrorising” the vulnerable.
Murray Dowey was only 16 when he took his own life last year. It is believed that he was blackmailed after being duped by criminals in West Africa into sending private and intimate photos of himself.
The Dunblane teen’s mother, Ros, and father, Mark, have condemned the criminals as well as the social media companies for not doing enough to protect young people, saying they have “blood on their hands”.
Typically, victims of sextortion are provided a nude photo or video and then requested to submit one back, after which they are threatened with the material being shared with friends and family unless they comply. It is thought that this pressure is what caused Murray to take his own life.
In a video message about the “cruel” crime, the parents told the perpetrators: “You’re abusing children. You’ve ended Murray’s life.
“How would they feel if it was their child or their little brother or their friend? I mean, it’s so cruel, and this is children, and it’s abuse. You’re terrorising people, children, for some money, and I don’t think in any society that is in any way acceptable.”
Mark spoke about how his son was “a really lovely kid” and how they had no idea something was wrong. Mark told the BBC: “He went up to his room, and he was absolutely fine. And you know, we found him dead the next morning”. His mother Ros added: “We had no chance to intervene, to notice there was something wrong and try and help and fix it”.
However, Murray’s parents don’t just blame the criminals for their son’s death, they hold tech companies responsible too as sextorters find their victims by targeting individuals on social media then using their list of friends and followers in their blackmail attempts.
Ros said: “I think they’ve got blood on their hands. The technologies are there for them to stop so many of these crimes.” Whereas, Mark believes Silicon Valley could do more but that they won’t as it would cost them money. He added: “It will stop them making more billions than they’re making”.
The Fearless Scotland’s national sextortion campaign, which the Dowey family will be involved in, will be launched today in Glasgow to warn young people about the dangers of sextortion. It is a campaign which will bring together Police Scotland, Crimestoppers and the Scottish Government to offer advice on what to do and where to go for help if someone is targeted by criminals.
Mark and Ros have a message for any young person who finds themselves a victim of sextortion. The couple stated: “There’s nothing that is worth taking your own life for so if something happens to you, put that phone down and go and get somebody you trust and tell them it’s happened. We can’t have this happening to more children, what happened to Murray.”
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