‘Father filmed own death live on the internet’

A FATHER filmed his own death live on the internet in his home – and police found his webcam was still operating when he was discovered dead, an inquest heard.

Builder Leon Jenkins, 43, was found by police after allegedly being goaded by cruel trolls in an insult Paltalk chatroom.

Paltalk is an American-owned site which has 200 million users worldwide. It allows users to hold group video chats and browse thousands of live video streams.

A coroner heard the alarm was raised by the website administrator – and police went to his home to investigate.

An inquest into his death heard he was discovered in the living room of his home in Roath, Cardiff, on July 25.

Coroner’s officer Michelle Morgan said: “Police attended the home address having being alerted by a website admin that he might need assistance. A webcam was still operating in the room.”

The inquest in Pontypridd was adjourned for a full hearing to allow a full investigation into the tragedy.

South Wales Police removed a computer and mobile phone to examine his internet activity leading up to the incident. Police are investigating claims that Mr Jenkins was goaded into killing himself at his bedsit where he lived alone.

Friends say he received a message on the night of the tragedy saying: ‘Why don’t you just do it? Your life isn’t worth it.’

They also revealed that the father-of-three had his own “room” on the website where he would swap foul-mouthed abuse with strangers around the world.

They found Mr Jenkins dead inside the flat where he had lived alone for the last 18 years.

Neighbours had reported Mr Jenkins to Cardiff City Council over the noise and bad language coming from his flat.

Another neighbour, who didn’t want to be named, said: ‘It had got a lot worse because he was leaving his windows open in the hot nights. ‘Some of the things you could hear him shouting were disgusting – really bad swear words.’

This comes just months after Gregory Tomkins, 39, took his own life on the site on Christmas Day last year. The site saw its first British suicide in 2007. The coroner at the inquest of Kevin Whitrick, 42, of Wellington, Shropshire, then called for insult chat rooms to be banned.

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