Encouraging suicide = fun.

[faceless]

Former nurse charged with aiding a British man's suicide after encouraging people to kill themselves online
24th April 2010

A former nurse who told police he went on the Internet and encouraged dozens of depressed people to kill themselves for the 'thrill of the chase' was charged yesterday with helping a Canadian woman and a British man commit suicide, authorities said. William Melchert-Dinkel, 47, was charged with aiding suicide under a rarely used decades-old state law that legal experts say could be difficult to prosecute on freedom-of-speech grounds.

Melchert-Dinkel is accused of encouraging the suicides of Mark Drybrough, 32, who hanged himself at his home in Coventry, England, in 2005; and Nadia Kajouji, 18, of Brampton, Ontario, who drowned in 2008 in a river in Ottawa, where she was studying at Carleton University.

Prosecutors claim Melchert-Dinkel posed as a female nurse - using the online names 'Cami,' 'falcongirl,' 'li dao' and others - then feigned compassion for those he met in suicide chat rooms, while offering step-by-step instructions on how to take their lives. The criminal complaint filed in the case said he told investigators he encouraged 'dozens' of people to commit suicide and 'characterised it as the thrill of the chase'. He also estimated that he had actually assisted five or fewer people kill themselves.

Kajouji's mother, Deborah Chevalier, said she was overwhelmed when she heard the news. 'My insides were shaking, I was crying and laughing at the same time,' she wrote in an e-mail, adding that the charges were long overdue.

Melchert-Dinkel's lawyer, Terry Watkins, declined to discuss the case in detail, saying he hadn't received all the evidence yet. Melchert-Dinkel, whose first court appearance is scheduled for May 25, told police that he stopped the Internet chats shortly after Christmas 2008 for moral and legal reasons. He said he 'felt terrible' about the advice to commit suicide he provided to others.

An e-mail found on Drybrough's computer from Melchert-Dinkel showed him giving technical advice on how to hang yourself from a door. The investigation tied Melchert-Dinkel to Kajouji through searches of their computers. Canadian authorities determined she had online discussions with someone named Cami and entered into a suicide pact with her. A search of his computer revealed a photograph of Kajouji and correspondence between him and other suicidal people.

Some experts say prosecuting the state law, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine, could be difficult because Melchert-Dinkel didn't physically help to kill them, just allegedly encouraged them and gave technical directions. The state law does not specifically address situations involving the Internet or suicides that occur out of state.

'I believe a compelling argument can be made that not only are the charges unconstitutional but the underlying statute is unconstitutional,' said George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley, who follows the issue of physician-assisted suicide.

However, Richard Frase, a criminal law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, said the charges may stick because while advocating suicide over the Internet in the abstract may be protected speech, encouraging a specific person in how to do it 'probably puts it over the line in terms of free speech,' he said.

Minnesota authorities began investigating in March 2008 when an anti-suicide activist in Britain alerted them that someone in the Midwestern state was using the Internet to manipulate people into killing themselves. Melchert-Dinkel worked at various hospitals and nursing homes over the years and was cited several times for neglect and being rough with patients, according to the Minnesota Board of Nursing, which revoked his license last June.

After his license was revoked, Melchert-Dinkel said he didn't think he'd be criminally charged. 'Nothing is going to come of it,' Melchert-Dinkel said in October. 'I've moved on with my life, and that's it.'

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Let's hope someone encourages him to walk into their fists at a rapid rate...

What a freak.

[eefanincan]

What a sick, sick, individual...... makes my stomach turn.

[Mixxa]

This sicko should be strongly encouraged to take his own miserable life. I'd be glad to provide the rope.

[faceless]

If that was meant to be ironic, well done.

[Skylace]

There are just no words.

[faceless]

Man jumps to his death after failed attempt to crash small plane
18 Oct 10
thelocal.de/society/20101018-30563.html

A 26-year-old man attempted to crash a sightseeing plane above Munich by attacking the pilot, but jumped to his death instead after he found he was no match for the Bundeswehr-trained aviator, Bavarian police reported.

The young man had rented the single-motor Cessna and hired the pilot in Augsburg for an air tour around the Bavarian capital on Saturday. When the plane reached an altitude of some 500 metres above the town of Bergkirchen, the 26-year-old attacked the pilot with a knife. But the pilot managed to fight him off and the man then opted to jump out of the plane, police reported.

The pilot sustained knife wounds to his face and hands, but managed to land the plane back in Augsburg and alert police of the attack. According to police, the 42-year-old pilot was trained by the Bundeswehr and had flown in the military. “That certainly helped him in the situation,” a police spokesperson said on Sunday.

The other man’s body was found after a woman called to report seeing a figure fall from the sky into a livery building near Palsweis. Doctors determined the man was killed instantly on impact, a police statement said. Police later found a suicide note in the 26-year-old’s apartment. Over the last several years the man had been caught with drugs and committed a few petty offences, Augsburg police confirmed.

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Bloody hell - what a choice to make.

[faceless]

10 months in jail for this... I hope he gets a kicking every day.