Our darling boy took his own life after he was blackmailed online by evil sextortion gang
Parents tell of heartbreak as police warn of surge in scams
THE parents of a teenager who took his own life after falling victim to an ‘evil’ sextortion scam have said their ‘world has been shattered’.
Murray Dowey, 16, from Dunblane, was contacted on social media by someone claiming to be a young girl but who was actually a fraudster there to trick him into sending an intimate image.
The Perthshire schoolboy was then blackmailed with the photograph and took his own life just days after Christmas.
Now parents Mark and Ros Dowey have spoken out about the callous scam which claimed their son’s life.
The devastated couple said they ‘don’t want this to happen to any other family’ and urged social media platforms to step up the safeguarding for teenagers ‘immediately’.
Murray took his own life on December 30 last year, just hours after he was blackmailed. The Stirling Albion fan, who had been enjoying the Christmas holidays with his parents and two brothers, is the latest tragic victim of a surge in sextortion cases.
Ms Dowey told ITV News: ‘That evening we were just chatting and watching rubbish on telly. We were just a normal family of five. To the next morning, we’re down to four people with a huge Murray-shaped gap that’s never going to go away.
‘He’s my little boy. To think of my little boy in such distress and not to reach out for help, it’s awful.’
Sextortion is when images are used for financial exploitation and coercion – a crime which is often committed by foreign organised gangs who target young men online before blackmailing them for money.
Police Scotland has revealed an ‘increase in sextortion incidents being reported’ and charities have told of their helplines being inundated with calls from victims. Ms Dowey said her son was a ‘normal, happy teenager’ who had ‘everything to look forward to’. The family said they never thought that evening would be the last time they would see him.
Mr Dowey said he was ‘sitting watching the football.
‘Next thing I heard was Ros screaming... screams like I’ve never heard in my life before, it was horrendous’.
He added: ‘He was a very normal, easy-going, helpful boy, had a great sense of humour … I can’t believe he’s gone.
‘One of the reasons it is so devastating is it comes into your house, exactly where Murray should have been safest in his room, asleep.
‘So there’s very little you can do to protect them.’
Murray’s heartbroken mother said: ‘The panic and terror he must have been in for however long this went on, whether it was minutes or hours, I’m devastated for him, that he was just obviously in such a state that he thought taking his life was the only thing he could do.’
Police Scotland is understood to be working with authorities in Nigeria to find those responsible.
Ms Dowey said: ‘I just think they’re evil. Those criminals killed our son.
‘They can’t just be anonymous people behind the keyboard thousands of miles away.
‘There has to be consequences and there has to be consequences to deter others from doing this.’
Superintendent Joanne McEwan, from Police Scotland’s Partnerships, Prevention and Community Wellbeing Department, said those targeted should ‘not be embarrassed or scared to come forward’.
She said: ‘We are experiencing an increase in the number of sextortion incidents being reported, and organised crime gangs based overseas are often responsible, although individuals are also involved.
‘These criminals use the internet, social media, dating apps, web cams or pornography sites. They fake identities to befriend people online and then threaten to send images to their family and friends. They are good at covering their tracks and remaining anonymous.’
Yesterday Police Scotland said its inquiries into the events leading up to the teenager’s death were ongoing.
Not only are Murray’s parents now in a battle to bring the blackmailers to justice, but they have demanded social media companies act to keep people on their platforms safe.
Mr Dowey said: ‘I think the platforms that these criminals are using need to up the safeguarding, up the protection for young people immediately.
‘I think they know exactly how they could do that.
‘It’s been mooted by many an expert, but nothing’s been done about it. We’re starting to see a lot of young people dying through this crime.’
■ Stop Non-consensual Intimate Image Abuse, which works with social media companies to help detect and stop images from being shared online, can be contacted at https://stopncii.org.
For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.
‘It comes into your house’