Ex-nurse gets 360-day sentence in suicide-chat case

Source: Star Tribune

William Melchert-Dinkel was sentenced Wednesday to serve 360 days in jail for his role in urging two people to commit suicide through online communication. The sentence was stayed pending the outcome of an appeal that his defense attorney has indicated he plans to file.

Melchert-Dinkel was also ordered to pay an $18,000 fine and about $30,000 in restitution costs to the families of the two people who committed suicide.

Deborah Chevalier, the mother of Nadia Kajouji, one of the two people, wept as she gave a victim impact statement. "I would give everything I have, I would give my life in a heartbeat to spend one more minute with my child," she said.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/local/121263264.html

I wonder if there was some specific reason for giving him a weird sentence like this.

Misdemeanors are punishable by up to 364 days in jail.

The man is a disgrace.

It's like the same impulse of a murderer.

with pure misery.

That has to be one of the weirdest things I have ever heard of.

Sonoman

he actually wanted to WATCH??

"In e-mail chats, Melchert-Dinkel frequently proposed to others that they hang themselves in front of a live web cam so he could watch it, although there is no evidence anyone did so."


Probably a moot point, but the prosecutors should research his work history to see if there are any strange, "tragic" deaths...

The story of how this individual was identified and caught is fascinating (and obviously the entire story is tragic in the extreme). The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation followed it intensively, and both episodes of The Fifth Estate can be watched online.

The original broadcast: Death Online

Her name is Nadia Kajouji: eighteen years old, pretty, self-confident, an ambitious student with her sights set on a career in law and politics. Her world seems bright, and her future limitless as she begins her first year at Ottawa’s Carleton University in the fall of 2007.

But, as the fifth estate reports in Death Online, Nadia’s world is about to change, in a tragic way, and what happens to her will lead to an international search for an Internet predator.

and the follow-up: Justice for Nadia

It's the fall of 2007 and Nadia Kajouji has no way of knowing she is about to fall into the clutches of an online predator when she turns to the web for help. She is just eighteen years old, pretty, self-confident; a talented and ambitious student. Her sights set on a career in law and politics, she's in her first year at Ottawa's Carleton University. Nadia's bright future soon takes a tragic turn. She succumbs to a crippling depression that sparks suicidal impulses—impulses nurtured and fed by an online counsellor named Cami D. Nadia doesn't know it, but Cami D is alleged to be a web predator, a "cyberpath". He pretends to be a young woman, also battling depression, to gain her trust, then encourages her to commit suicide while he watches on a web cam. Driven to the edge by the stranger, Nadia jumps from a bridge and is found drowned in the Rideau River.

The fifth estate follows Cami D's trail to Wiltshire, England, where a 64-year-old grandmother makes an astonishing discovery. The amateur sleuth unmasks the cyber predator's true identity while trying to help another teenaged girl being urged to make a suicide pact. The fifth estate catches up with the real Cami D - William Melchert-Dinkel - in Faribault, Minnesota, where he now stands charged with two counts of assisting suicide. If found guilty, Melchert-Dinkel may be the first person ever successfully convicted for persuading a person to commit suicide over the Internet.

choppy for you?)

I haven't met many seriously depressed people who haven't thought of suicide .... that this man took sick advantage of their illness is so horrible and sad.

I've never been able to watch video at the CBC site at all. ;) I just don't bother downloading whatever doodads or widgets I need for it, I guess.

Unfortunate if you can't watch it; it sounds ghoulish to say, but the investigation was really interesting to see.

The planned appeal is based on a first amendment right to free speech. Sometimes my jaw just drops.

At least the judge recognized, in the sentence, that there actually are vulnerable people, and we actually do owe them protection from sick evil like this man's.

He intentionally sought out vulnerable people and did knowingly harmful things by speaking to them. That anyone could advance freedom of speech as a shield against responsibility for the consequences of that act is hard to believe.

Not sure I'll be able to watch much more because it hits close to home, but I'm shocked that he only got a year. The woman in England said she'd be very surprised if the number of suicides associated with this case wasn't in the double digits. According to her, he tried to talk at least 50 into it, and counselled teens on how to harm themselves ..... on camera so he could watch. He needs to be locked up in a mental ward or put away for a long time, imo.

that there are people out there like this. Wish they could have given him more time.